English barn

The English barn, or three-bay barn, is a barn style that was most popular in the northeast region of the US,[1] but are the most widespread barn type in America. This barn type is, with the New World Dutch barn, the oldest type and has been called the "...grandfather of the American barn."[2] New barns in this style were constructed for over a century, from the 1770s through the 1900s.[3]

A common door arrangement of the three-bay barn, but with a shed-roof addition to the right side.
A romantic view of the threshing floor. Doors on both side-walls was common but not universal. The swinging doors are typical but here they are a rare type called haar hung (they are suspended from the one of the door style).

Design

The early pioneers brought with them a barn design inherited from the first colonists. An average English barn measured thirty feet by forty feet and had a large double wagon door on its lateral side and unpainted vertical boards covering the walls. English barns were normally without a basement and stood on level ground. The interior of the barns were characterized by a center driveway which acted as a threshing floor, similar to the breezeway of a crib barn.[4] The double doors generally opened onto the center drive which divided the building into two separate areas, one for hay and grain storage and the other for livestock.[3]

See also

References
  1. Auer, Michael J. The Preservation of Historic Barns, Preservation Briefs, National Park Service, first published October 1989. Retrieved 7 February 2007.
  2. Jiusto, Chere, and Christine Brown. Hand raised: the barns of Montana. Helena, Mt.: Montana Historical Society Press ;, 2011. Print. 3. ISBN 0980129206
  3. Historic Barn Types, Taking Care of Your Old Barn, University of Vermont, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 7 February 2007.
  4. Endersby, Elric, and Alexander Greenwood. Barn: the art of a working building. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. ISBN 0395573726
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