A new event venue, The Barn at Silverstone, is a 4,500-square-foot white barn with black trim that sits at the back of the private circular gravel drive on the Stones’ property, a stunning showpiece on their rolling farm fields.
Photos provided
HANCOCK COUNTY – Like many Hancock County farm families, Chad and Marla Stone and their kids have been spending practically every day at the Hancock County 4-H Fair.
“Every day is show day,” Chad said.
Both he and his wife grew up on dairy farms showing animals at their local fairs, and they wanted to be sure to pass the tradition along to their children.
“There’s a lot of things I think they learn from it. It prepares you to think on the fly and to be prepared for when things may not go as planned, so you can switch gears and improve,” said Marla.
All four of their kids have been in 4-H since they were little, including three daughters – Morgan, 20; Amelia, 17 ; and Taylor, 15 – and one son, Marshall, age 12.
Amelia is on the 4-H queen’s court for the second year in a row, and all three of the younger kids are showing a variety of animals at the fair.
“We’ll have five head of dairy, four pigs, two lambs and two goats, but we’ve had more in the past,” said Marla, who sometimes serves as a dairy judge at other fairs.
She has fond memories of growing up on a dairy farm in Hope, Ind., while her husband did the same in Fredericksburg, Ohio, a town with strong ties to Future Farmers of America.
“We both grew up in agriculture and we owe some of our success to that, so we want (our kids) to have the same opportunities we did,” said Chad, who works full-time in agricultural sales but also runs his family’s 110-acre farm.
The family grows soybeans and five acres of sweetcorn, and bales all their hay.
In 2018 they moved from a 10-acre farm in New Palestine to their much larger spread just a half mile outside the New Palestine school district, just west of Mt. Comfort Road on W. County Road 100 North.
Before the move they refurbished the property’s 19th century farmhouse, the first structure situated along the two-lane gravel road leading back to their farm, which includes a series of red barns and outbuildings and more than 100 acres of farmland.
“Someone told us it was one of the oldest homes in the area. In the foundation you can see the trees with bark still on them” said Marla.
When she and her husband moved in they had dreams of one day creating a barn-style event venue, similar to the ones a few of their friends own throughout the county.
While COVID put those plans on hold, the Stones were finally able to place the first bent of the barn into place on Dec. 1, 2022.
Over the months their new event venue – The Barn at Silverstone – began to take shape.
The 4,500-square-foot white barn with black trim sits at the back of the private circular gravel drive on the Stones’ property, a stunning showpiece on their rolling farm fields.
The main structure was built by The Beamery out of Helmsburg, Ind., which builds Craftsman-style barns and log cabins, specializing in mortise and tenon construction which focuses on fitting together pieces of wood rather than connecting them with screws, nail or glue.
“They brought the logs from the Carolinas and built the pieces inside, then used a crane to set up each bent,” said Marla, who has had a lifelong appreciation for old barns.
“There are so many old barns being torn down that look like this but it’s hard to maintain them,” she said.
Inside the Barn at Silverstone, guests’ eyes are immediately drawn up the two-tone, 32-foot vaulted ceiling featuring light wood ceiling boards contrasting with dark wood beams, fastened together by light wood pegs.
The ceiling also features three large chandeliers which shine down upon the polished concrete floors.
The Stones built the event venue in the hopes of creating a side business that would support their family while providing a picturesque rural setting for special events, from wedding receptions to baby showers, graduation parties and corporate meetings.
“I guess ultimately I’d like to have one of the kids come back and take it over some day. I just kind of want to leave a legacy,” Marla said.
The barn is ideal for groups of 100-150 people, she said, but could comfortably seat 200 at round tables or up to 250 for a chairs-only event.
The couple just hosted their first event – a wedding reception – on June 15, and scored their first five-star review.
Marla had several showings booked with potential new clients next week, which she’ll do her best to squeeze in between daily trips to the county fair.
While her oldest child, who will soon be a sophomore at Purdue, has wrapped up her 10 years in 4-H, her youngest three kids are still boots-deep in showing livestock.
Her second oldest daughter, Amelia, a recent New Palestine High School graduate, is serving on this year’s fair queen court for the second year in a row.
Ideally, the kids will advance to show livestock at the Indiana State Fair in. They also show goats and dairy cows on the national level.
While life may be chaotic right now, Marla feels blessed watching her children follow in their parents’ footsteps in 4-H, embracing the good life on their Hancock County farm.
