The effort to preserve aging New England barns, including urban farms in Boston (WCVB-Chronicle)

John Porter spent his career as a farm specialist at the University of New Hampshire advising farmers on how to modernize their operations. Now he tries to save old barns. His book Preserving Old Barns: Preventing the Loss of a Valuable Resource, co-authored by Francis E. Gilman with photographs by Lowell H. Fewster, celebrates these treasured icons.

Look hard enough and historic barns can be found anywhere. Case in point, the restored barn at the Fowler Clark Epstein Farm in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston, home to the Urban Farming Institute.

A mile or two away in Dorchester, another old beauty, the Clapp Family Barn at the Dorchester Historical Society. And this one is loaded with old tools from the farm.