Introduction
From the days when Thomas Jefferson envisioned the new republic as a
nation dependent on citizen farmers for its stability and its freedom, the
family farm has been a vital image in the American consciousness. As the
main structures of farms, barns evoke a sense of tradition and security,
of closeness to the land and community with the people who built them.
Even today the rural barn raising presents a forceful image of community
spirit. Just as many farmers built their barns before they built their
houses, so too many farm families look to their old barns as links with
their past. Old barns, furthermore, are often community landmarks and make
the past present. Such buildings embody ethnic traditions and local customs;
they reflect changing farming practices and advances in building technology.
In the imagination they represent a whole way of life.
Unfortunately, historic barns are threatened by many factors. On farmland
near cities, barns are often seen only in decay, as land is removed from
active agricultural use. In some regions, barns are dismantled for lumber,
their beams sold for reuse in living rooms. Barn raisings have given way
to barn razings. Further threats to historic barns and other farm structures
are posed by changes in farm technology, involving much larger machines
and production facilities, and changes in the overall farm economy, including
increasing farm size and declining rural populations.(1)
Yet historic barns can be refitted for continued use in agriculture,
often at great savings over the cost of new buildings. This Brief encourages
the preservation of historic barns and other agricultural structures by
encouraging their maintenance and use as agricultural buildings, and by
advancing their sensitive rehabilitation for new uses when their historic
use is no longer feasible.
Historic Barn Types
Dutch Barns
The first great barns built in this country were those of the Dutch
settlers of the Hudson, Mohawk, and Schoharie valleys in New York State
and scattered sections of New Jersey.(2) On the exterior, the most notable
feature of the Dutch barn is the broad gable roof, which in early examples
(now extremely rare), extended very low to the ground.
 A gable roof, center wagon doors with pent roof, stock door at the corners, and horizontal clapboarding are all typical features of the Dutch barn. Photo: S. Matson. |
On the narrow end
the Dutch barn features center doors for wagons and a door to the stock
aisles on one or both of the side ends. A pent roof (or pentice) over the
center doors gave some slight protection from the elements. The siding
is typically horizontal, the detailing simple. Few openings other than
doors and traditional holes for martins puncture the external walls.(3)
The appearance is of massiveness and simplicity, with the result that Dutch
barns seem larger than they actually are.
To many observers the heavy interior structural system is the most distinctive
aspect of the Dutch barn. Mortised, tenoned and pegged beams are arranged
in "H"-shaped" units that recall church interiors, with columned
aisles alongside a central space (here used for threshing). This interior
arrangement, more than any other characteristic, links the Dutch barn with
its Old World forebears. The ends of cross beams projecting through the
columns are often rounded to form "tongues," a distinctive feature
found only in the Dutch barn.
Relatively few Dutch barns survive. Most of these date from the late
18th century. Fewer yet survive in good condition, and almost none unaltered.
Yet the remaining examples of this barn type still impress with the functional
simplicity of their design and the evident pride the builders took in their
work.
"The Preservation of Historic Barns" an Historic Preservation Brief
