Delafield barn could be smiling again soon as its new owner proposes restoring the landmark's cheerful facade

CITY OF DELAFIELD - It was a perfect match and timing when Maria Luther of Oconomowoc put in an offer to purchase Montage barn at 2420 Milwaukee St.

Luther had been looking for a place to open a children's toy and candy store, while Montage owner Dan Leavitt was looking to sell the Delafield barn as he downsizes his company and prepares for retirement.

Leavitt said that he had three offers on the property, but two were from fast food companies that wanted to tear down the landmark.

The third offer was from Luther, who not only wanted to keep the barn, but also to restore the giant smile on the barn that made it a popular landmark off Interstate 94.

"I think it's really neat that Maria is going to try and put the smile back on the building," Leavitt said. "The other offers were going to tear the building down, which I just couldn't believe, and that's never what I wanted for the building."

Leavitt bought the barn in 2001 when the landmark was painted yellow and had a large smiley face on it.

He removed the smile and changed the color because it did not fit with his plan for a furniture store, and it was against Amish tradition, which discourages human features on inanimate objects.

"We had a lot of backlash when we took that down," Leavitt said. "Things you would never think would happen, like we had a radio interview from someone in Seattle, and someone stopped in years later irate about the smiley being gone. It was crazy."

The city has approved Luther's plan of operation for The Smiley Barn, but whether the giant smile can return will be up to the plan commission, as Luther would need special permission for a sign that big.

"It’s a treasured building in all of Lake Country. It's an iconic building, and it deserves to be restored," Luther said.

Leavitt said another bonus that came from selling to Luther was that she agreed to hire any employees from The Montage who wanted to continue to work in the building.

Leavitt said his decision to close The Montage came as he is getting closer to retirement, and he does not want to continue to operate both the store in Delafield, and the original location in McFarland.

"The Delafield location, that is the better of the two stores, but our warehouse is in McFarland, and loading up merchandise to bring it out to Delafield is getting to be old after 18 years," Leavitt said.

He said he will run the Delafield store until it is out of merchandise; he does not plan to close the McFarland store for the next few years.

Luther is working to get public support behind her proposal to bring the smile back to the barn.

She created a Facebook page for The Smiley Barn and posted, "Smiley is so big we need an exception to the signage ordinance to put him up, so please join us in letting the Delafield Planning Commission know you support this."

Luther said her sign proposal will go to the plan commission in May. She hopes to open her store in August.

Dick Smith's Live Bait & Tackle will continue to operate in the basement of the store under the new ownership.