Beginning in 1895, James Purdy acquired acreage along the east side of Richie Road, and by 1918 he owned 560 acres of mostly swampland, including all of Mud Lake just a half-mile northeast of this Barn Site. He intended to build a full-sized generating plant to supply power for Gagetown and Owendale, and that year he traveled to Canada to study a peat-fired power plant. After returning, he hired Ottomar Sting and Sting's father to dig a ditch to drain Mud Lake so he could harvest peat, dry it into brick-sized cakes, and use it to fuel a steam boiler. He built this 12 ft. by 20 ft. powerhouse as a test site, but when the peat would not burn hot enough to produce sufficient steam to keep the generator running at a constant RPM, he abandoned the plan in 1922. He then purchased a Delco System to provide power on site, and in 1938 commercial power was finally brought there.