In the News

Sisters Amy Doan and Dorotha Harding were raised watching their parents, Norm and Marie Painter, work to build a 600-acre farm. Harding said that as other farmer’s retired her parents would buy neighboring farms.

“We milked Holsteins three times a day and we had roughly 200 beef cattle, all of us grew up showing cattle at the Tioga County Fair. Mom and Dad had Painter’s Meat products for 50 years in Elkland,” said Harding.

Harding explained that her parents began catering as a way to sell more meat for the butcher shop.

“Our parents started out with ox roasts and pig roasts. My dad could cook a full beef animal in about six hours. It was all in the way that he built his wood-fired oven. It was portable and he transferred it all over. That’s how it started part of the catering,” said Harding.

Eventually, Marie became weary of travelling and hauling all the accouterments for catering throughout New York and Pennsylvania.

“Mom just got tired of carrying the dishes, the glassware, the silverware, everywhere she went and said I’m gonna have people come to me,” said Harding.

That dream, of turning a 1930s Sears and Roebuck kit barn used to store hay into a wedding venue that would draw people from far away places like Hawaii and Alaska, eventually became a reality.

In 1998 The Barn at Hillsprings Farm opened as a destination wedding venue. At the time, barn weddings were not common and it was uncertain how successful the venue would be.

“We started before barns were the in thing. I always like to say we were the first barn, which we were, as far as being used for a wedding venue. We were definitely the first,” said Harding.

“I have done a lot of work, so everything in it is original. As far as the flooring, we did have to replace a few boards, just from wagons going in and out throughout the years, but the flooring is original. The walls and the roof are still original,” said Doan

The venue has had great success and usually every weekend in the summer has been booked for a wedding, with some weekends booked both Saturday and Sunday.

Doan said that the The Barn is unique because the venue offers a full complement of services at the venue.

“Unlike a lot of the facilities, we do the catering on site. Most of the time if you hire or rent a barn or winery or anything like that you have to find a caterer and then go out and rent your own tablecloths or your own dishes. So we are really an all-in-one venue. People come to us because they don’t have to carry in all that stuff. We provide it all,” said Doan.

In addition to the tangible services the venue provides, Doan and Harding have been helping brides for almost 30 years.

“We do not call ourselves wedding planners, but we do end up helping them plan their wedding. From lists of vendors that do a good job, from cakes to photographers to DJs; down to helping plan the day,” said Harding.

Harding and Doan said that every year they try to work on a large project to improve the venue and this year they are adding a bridal suite so the brides can get prepared on site.

Another feature the the sisters have added this year is a house on the property where people can spend the night, offering another option for those not local to the area.

For Harding and Doan, who both have full-time jobs as a business owner and a teacher, The Barn is not just about the business side of the venue.

“It’s about just seeing people having a good time visiting and eating good food and just enjoying a special day. Dorotha and I both like to cook, it’s fun. We’re doing what we like to do.”