That agricultural icon known as the Star Barn won't be sitting along Route 283 much longer.

The four-building complex was sold to nonprofit farm-preservation organization Agrarian Country for an undisclosed amount and is tentatively scheduled to be dismantled in spring and moved to an undetermined location.

Robert A. Kinsley II, president of Harrisburg-based Preservation Pennsylvania Inc., a statewide, nonprofit preservation group that has owned the Star Barn complex since 2000, announced the sale in a news release late Tuesday.

"Preservation Pennsylvania is so pleased to have found a wonderful steward for this important piece of Pennsylvania's architectural heritage," Kinsley said in the release. "We were committed to waiting for the right buyer and we believe Agrarian Country has proposed the perfect use for the complex allowing it to be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations."

Under terms of the sales agreement, the entire complex of buildings in Lower Swatara Township, Dauphin County, will be carefully dismantled, relocated and reassembled somewhere in southcentral Pennsylvania to become the centerpiece of a large agricultural exhibition and conference center.

On the Web site for the Middletown-based Agrarian Country, an article about the project reported the buildings will be used to promote agricultural tourism, education and enterprises, such as promotion of animal and plant production, agribusiness and natural resource conservation. The Star Barn is slated to become an expo and conference center for the group's educational programs, including "festivals, shows, auctions, dinners, community theater, etc."

Additional plans for the barn and outbuildings include housing a heritage farm museum, farm toy museum and farm art exhibitions.

The barn's current 3-acre site along Nissley Drive, just off the highway near Harrisburg International Airport, was studied and deemed too small for Agrarian Country's plans.

The group hired The Barn Saver, a Narvon-based barn-restoration firm, to dismantle the structure and prepare the pieces to be moved, including the stone foundation and silo.

The barn will be raised exactly as it was originally built, according to Agrarian Country's Web site, with reconstruction trusted to American Timber Framers Guild, a Massachusetts-based, nonprofit member association specializing in the centuries-old craft of timber framing. The guild will reassemble the buildings using the same techniques from the 1870s, which includes the use of draft horses, mules and oxen.

Robert S. Barr, president of Agrarian Country, said in the press release that five sites are being considered for the relocation, and an announcement is likely to be made by April 2008.

"The Star Barn has truly won the hearts of thousands of people from all walks of life," Barr said in his statement. "It reminds us of America's wonderful agricultural heritage and is worthy of preservation."

Preservation Pennsylvania has cared for the Dauphin County barn for nearly a decade. Built in 1872, the Gothic revival-style barn of German/Swiss construction is a familiar site to motorists traveling Route 283 between Harrisburg and Lancaster.

The barn and its surrounding complex of outbuildings — a chicken coop, carriage house and pig barn — are sheathed in white clapboard.

The barn is famous for its signature star-shaped louvers and trefoil-carved gingerbread trim. It has been celebrated in countless paintings and has earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Before being listed for sale in 2003, the barn was the focus of an aggressive fundraising campaign to stabilize the structure after years of neglect.

The Star Barn was built for John Motter, a shipper and trader who made his fortune selling horses and mules to the Union Army during the Civil War.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com