Bare played his most substantial role in shaping the architectural character of the town through co-founding the Roaring Spring Planing Mill in 1887. Operated as a heating coal and building supply business with a contracting service on the side, the mill is credited with constructing most of the houses and other buildings of note in Roaring Spring between 1887 and the early 1950s. While the company records have been lost, the personal records of David S. Smaltz (1861–1935), a carpenter who worked for the contracting business are impressive. Smaltz's own accounts kept by the family in the 1960s recorded that between 1904 and 1935 he helped build 68 houses on Walnut Street, 26 houses on Roosevelt Avenue, eight houses on Church Street, and 54 houses on New Street. This figure of 148 is bolstered by D. M. Bare's account in his autobiography where he stated that 97 buildings were erected by the planing mill between 1910 and 1920.