New England barn

The New England Barn was the most common style of barn built in most of the 19th century in rural New England and variants are found throughout the United States. This style barn superseded the ”three-bay barn” in several important ways. The most obvious difference is the location of the barn doors on the gable-end(s) rather than the sidewall(s). The New England and three bay barns were used similarly as multipurpose farm buildings (housing animals, crop storage and other uses all in one building) but the New England barns are typically larger and have a basement. Culturally the New England Barn represents a shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming thus are larger and show significant changes in American building methods and technologies. Most were used as dairy barns but some housed teams of oxen which are generally called teamster barns. Sometimes these barns are simply called “gable fronted” and “gable fronted bank barns” but these terms are also used for barns other than the New England style barn such as in Maryland and Virginia which is not exactly the same style as found in New England. A similar style found in parts of the American mid-west and south is called a transverse frame barn or transverse crib barn.

Development of the New England barn began early in the 19th century, but they usually date from after 1830. They were the most popular barn type in New England by 1860. The construction is very different from the English barn typically being built using the square rule method of joinery, raised in bents, increasingly of sawn rather than hewn timbers, common rafter roof framing with purlin plates, designed to be used with a barn carrier, straight posts rather than flared (gunstock) posts, and dropped tie beam framing rather than the English tying joint. The doors are mounted on the gable end rather than the sidewall and after the 1840s mounted on rollers so they slide sideways rather than being mounted on hinges and swinging outward. Sometimes they have interior sliding doors. Doors on rollers are believed to have been a development from rail cars which had sliding doors. A full basement became standard and was used primarily for manure management with trap doors in the floor of the tie-up so manure was easily shoveled into the basement for later use on the fields. This is a significant difference between the Pennsylvania Barn where the cows were housed on the basement level. The basements also had sliding doors, sometimes arranged as a drive through passage. The foundation is dry laid stone, some of which may have been split rather than just being field-stone; and some barns have a top course of large, rectangular, quarried stones. The drive floor was not needed for hand threshing since threshing machines were available by this time. Scarf joints were needed to join timbers longitudinally because these barns are larger in size and the timber supply was more limited so full length timbers were not available. Roof overhangs of a foot are typically built in on the gables and eaves protecting the walls from water. Later in the 19th century these barns may also have ventilators or a cupola on the roof to help reduce moisture build-up inside. Stairways are sometimes found in New England barns but built-in ladders are common but less prevalent than ladders found in the New World Dutch barn. The number and size of cows were larger and were given more headroom so the New England barns were not just longer and wider but taller. Also the New England barn was popular during the period in northern New England when the connected farm building arrangement was popular and so were more likely to be connected to the house through a series of smaller rooms. Some New England barns have an indoor silo. These barns are easier to add on to by adding more bays. The New England barn almost always has a gable roof, but a gambrel roof form may be found on some New England barns. Sometimes the New England barn is framed with studs in the walls and horizontal sheathing boards instead of the more common rails with vertical sheathing.

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Wikipedia