Did you ever hear the folktale about world famous heavy metal band KISS using Muhlhauser Barn to practice?
Muhlhauser Ban is currently celebrating its 15th year at Beckett Park. Since 2008, this beautifully restored venue has hosted more than 1,000 private events and counting, from wedding receptions and birthday parties to corporate outings, high school class reunions and everything in between.
But even before the old barn began its new life – uprooted from a Fairfield, Ohio farm owned by a Butler County family of pre-Prohibition era beer brewers, and sprouting next door in West Chester Township as a rustic, seasonal rental facility – the Muhlhauser property had apparently already developed a kind of cult-like reputation as the place to “rock and roll all nite, and party every day.”
The original barn was built in 1881 by Cincinnati beer baron Gottlieb Muhlhauser and was used to store grain for the Windisch-Muhlhauser Brewing Company (a.k.a. Lion Brewery). The land and property was acquired by the Ohio Casualty Group circa 1998 and the barn was donated to West Chester Township circa 2002. With the cooperation and backing of the Muhlhauser family, the facility was dismantled, moved, restored and rebuilt at its current location by renowned barn restorer David Gaker.
Right around this time, the rumor mill must’ve been seriously spinning because in the mid-2000s, the Pulse-Journal felt a need to play the role of gossip destroyer, taking out 19 paragraphs in the local newspaper to shout it out loud – the urban legend, it turns out, was false. This quirky story gained popularity in KISS fan club circles of the day.
With the Detroit Rock City myth busted, Muhlhauser Barn hosted its grand opening here on March 30, 2008. Six years later, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio inducted KISS as a member of its Class of 2014.
See what’s new at Muhlhauser Barn and learn how to make a reservation at www.WestChesterOH.org/Barn.
Do you have a special memory involving Muhlhauser Barn? West Chester TV is curating a Community Storytellers playlist of oral history interviews as part of our 200th birthday bicentennial anniversary celebration. If you’d like to be involved in this project, please compete a quick questionnaire.
Continue reading for an excerpt from the Pulse Journal first published circa 2005 addressing the KISS/Muhlhauser Barn rumor.
NO LOVE FROM KISS FOR MUHLHAUSER BARN
From: The Pulse Journal
Did famous band once rock West Chester facility? 'Not true'
Legendary rock band KISS may like to rock 'n' roll all night, but, despite rumors to the contrary, they didn't do it in an old barn recently moved to West Chester Twp.
That comes from band frontman GENE SIMMONS, well known for his unnaturally long tongue.
Since West Chester Twp. acquired the Muhlhauser barn - originally built in Fairfield in 1881 - almost four years ago with plans to convert it into a multi-use conference center, rumors have circulated that KISS once owned the barn and used it as a rehearsal hideaway.
"Somebody had heard they had bought part of the farm land and used it as a rehearsal barn," said Joyce Smith, real estate manager with Ohio Casualty, the company that currently owns the property where the barn once stood.
Ohio Casualty purchased the land from Meersco Realty Co. and Mercantile Stores in 1998, according to the county auditor's Web site.
Smith said if KISS did own the barn, it would have been during the late 1970s, but property files could not be found to confirm it, she said.
While the claim sparks in the imagination images of Simmons or PAUL STANLEY swinging from the barn's rafters and the old wooden beams shaking to classic rock music, it is, unfortunately, just a rumor.
In December, The Pulse-Journal e-mailed information to Simmons about the barn, which was originally used as a brewery, and the rumor that KISS may once have owned it.
"Not true," was the short reply Simmons gave to the inquiry.
So that settles it.
"It was just a rumor we had heard," Smith said. "If he's coming back and saying 'no,' then I assume that's correct." Ohio Casualty spokesperson Cindy Denney said she is not surprised to hear the rumor was false.
"I thought it was kind of odd. Why would they be here? When we heard the story, I'm not sure any of us believed it," Denney said.
So what are the origins of the rumor? Denney said the company's knowledge of the barn is limited, going little further back than when they acquired the property seven years ago.
Perhaps the Muhlhauser family could provide a little more information.
But when Rick Muhlhauser - great-grandson of Henry Muhlhauser, one of three partners of the brewery - heard Simmons denied the rumor, his first response was, "Who's GENE SIMMONS?"
Ohio Casualty donated the barn to West Chester Twp. in 2002. The Muhlhauser family paid more than $40,000 to have it dismantled and moved from its location on Seward Road in Fairfield to Beckett Park in West Chester Twp.
The barn was recently brought back into the headlines during the township trustee race because reconstruction of the barn has not yet begun. Newly elected trustee Lee Wong said he plans to have the barn project at the top of his agenda for the year.
Plans have not yet been finalized, but the project proposal includes a conference center, space for a senior center, a kitchen and loft and will be nestled at the bottom of the hill on the east side of Beckett Road.