Exeter's whimsical "fish barn" sparked controversy, then was demolished. Here's why.

EXETER – You could be forgiven for thinking that it was a dream, or a hallucination.

Did a fish-shaped barn really rise up in a cow pasture on Ten Rod Road near Exeter Town Hall, with goggle-like windows for eyes, round blue-green shingles layered on like scales, twin balconies that stuck out like fins, and an open doorway that hung open like a gaping mouth? And if it was real, where did it go?

Here's the full, sad story of an whimsical, well-intentioned scheme that turned into a nuisance and had to be destroyed.

Who built the fish barn, and why?

The unusual three-story structure that became known as the "fish barn" was the vision of flower farmer Karl Aughinbaugh, who began constructing it after he and his wife, Nancy, bought 6.4 acres of land fronting Ten Rod Road in early 2019.

Some locals insist that the eccentrically-shaped building was intended to honor Sarah Balmforth, a 27-year-old woman who raised cattle on the farm before she was killed in a hit-and-run in 2017. However, Aughinbaugh's son, Jeremy Taylor, told the Providence Journal in 2019 that it was a tribute to Walter S. Taylor Jr., who died that same year – Taylor's grandfather, and Aughinbaugh's father-in-law.

Walter S. Taylor Jr. was a former president of the Rhode Island Dahlia Society and a devoted community volunteer, and Aughinbaugh envisioned continuing his legacy by growing dahlias and delivering bouquets to nursing home residents. The fish barn would serve as a farmstand, allowing Aughinbaugh to fund the charitable undertaking by selling fresh flowers and other farm products to the public.

It's not clear why the stand needed to be shaped like a fish – though the unique design certainly succeeded at catching the eye of passing drivers as they sped along Ten Road Road.

Neither Aughinbaugh or Taylor could be reached for comment for this story. Megan Rothwell, who later purchased the property, said she was told that Aughinbaugh also intended the farmstand to have a pond for his extensive collection of koi fish.

Why the fish barn became controversial

Some Exeter residents considered the fish barn to be an eyesore. Others, especially young children, enjoyed watching it go up. But the main source of complaints was the amount of attention it attracted, which reportedly resulted in at least one car accident .

Drivers would come flying down heavily-traveled Ten Rod Road, then come to a dead stop when they reached the bottom of the hill and saw the fish barn under construction. Others would pull out of the farm's small driveway without checking for oncoming traffic, leading to numerous near-collisions.

Megan and Richard Sadler, who live across the street, grew exasperated with the number of gawkers parking on their property and darting across the dangerous, 45 mile-per-hour road to take photos. They erected orange snow fencing and "No Trespassing" signs, and begged the Exeter Town Council to intervene before someone was injured or killed.

"I don't feel safe," Megan Sadler told councilmembers at a September 2019 meeting, noting that she moved to Exeter for peace and quiet after retiring from the U.S. Navy. People were climbing fences and harassing pregnant cows at the Aughinbaugh property, she said, and an errant car had "ended up in a field."

As the fish barn's notoriety grew, its legality came into question.

On one hand, Exeter building officials had issued the necessary permits for the project, and there was nothing saying that a farmstand couldn't be shaped like a fish: At the time, Exeter didn't have any design standards for outbuildings.

But the fish barn was considerably larger than 200 square feet – the maximum size for farmstands, councilman Francis DiGregorio said at a December 2019 meeting. There was already one barn on the property but no residential dwelling, so building another barn was also a potential zoning violation.

Odd structure became liability for farm's new owner

Exeter officials never reached a resolution on what to do about the fish barn. By the time the matter landed on the town council's docket, Aughinbaugh had already halted construction and put the farm up for sale – less than a year after buying it.

The project "just became too much," his son, Taylor, told The Journal by way of explanation.

Rothwell, an equestrian and animal trainer , purchased the farm in 2020. The idea was that she'd keep her three horses there, and her parents would eventually build a retirement home on the empty land. They weren't exactly in the market for an unfinished fish barn, but it came with the property.

The oddity quickly became a headache. Parts of the building were left wide open when construction stopped, which meant the interior wood was exposed to the elements and starting to rot. There was no way to prevent trespassers from getting inside, and a high risk that uninvited thrill seekers would fall from the barn's upper level.

"We just didn't want to have that liability," Rothwell said.

She didn't mind all the people who pulled over to take photos on a daily basis, but worried about what happened when no one was around at night, she said. People were clearly sneaking onto the property – at one point, the farm's front gate was completely removed from its hinges and tossed aside.

Why the fish barn couldn't be saved

Rothwell and her family considered completing the unfinished project, but all of the contractors who looked at the fish barn concluded that it was structurally unsound, she said. Disassembling it and donating the lumber to Habitat for Humanity wasn't an option: Too much wood had already rotted.

Nor could Exeter firefighters burn the fish barn as a training exercise. Rothwell said she was told that doing so would violate air quality regulations.

"What ended up happening, which we were very sad about because it was just such a waste, was that a demolition company came in and demolished the fish barn and took the lumber away in dumpsters," she said.

If there was any doubt that the fish barn needed to be torn down, it vanished that day. The demolition contractor "just lightly tapped the top of it, and the whole thing collapsed," Rothwell said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Exeter's whimsical "fish barn" sparked controversy, then was demolished. Here's why.