EL CAJON (CBS 8) - A piece of San Diego history is being dismantled one board at a time.
The barn on the former Paul Ranch in El Cajon was built in the 1880s. It's served many purposes over the decades, but the owners say it's become too expensive to keep.
The company that insures the property deemed the barn unsafe and told the owners their rates would skyrocket if they kept it.
Larry Middleton rents the property and says almost everyone in the area has memories of the barn.
"I'm 53 years old and I have a lot of people around my age saying that they used to work here in the summers when it was a thriving orchard. I believe it was an orange orchard at one time, and an avocado orchard at another time," Middleton said.
Most of the wood from the barn will be recycled.