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Historic Significance
Architectural description:
This is a 1 ½ - story eave-entry bank barn which appears to be three-bay. The south eave-side of the barn with the bank faces Canoe hill Road while the ridge line runs east-west almost parallel to this portion of road. The north eave-side of the barn is the main façade with two main entrances through two over-head garage doors, one each in the first bay and the second bay from the west. Each main entrance to the barn is sheltered by a shed-roof overhang. The east gable-end of barn has a shed-roof addition towards the extreme north to store wood. A continuous trim at the girt line separates the gable attic which has wood shingles while the rest of the gable-end has vertical siding. The gable attic lined by cornice board has a louvered vent just below the apex of the roof. The south eave-side of the barn facing the road has low grade level to form the bank level which is accessed by an entrance off-centered towards the east through a pair of X-braced hinged wagon doors. The bank level also has two eight-pane windows, one each towards either side. The first floor level of the south eave-side of the barn has an exterior-hung horse-shoe track hooded sliding hay door centered above the wagon door entrance at the bank level. A paired window with two modules of six-pane can be seen above the sliding hay door. The south eave-side of the barn has at least three cement plastered footings jutting above the grade level. The wooden frame of the barn appears to be supported on cement plastered masonry foundation. The barn has asphalt shingles roofing and red painted vertical siding walls with white trim and corner boards apart from the gable attics which have red painted wood shingles.
Historical significance:
The oldest barns still found in the state are called the "English Barn,” “side-entry barn,” “eave entry,” or a 30 x 40. They are simple buildings with rectangular plan, pitched gable roof, and a door or doors located on one or both of the eave sides of the building based on the grain warehouses of the English colonists' homeland. The name "30 by 40" originates from its size (in feet), which was large enough for 1 family and could service about 100 acres. The multi-purpose use of the English barn is reflected by the building's construction in three distinct bays - one for each use. The middle bay was used for threshing, which is separating the seed from the stalk in wheat and oat by beating the stalks with a flail. The flanking bays would be for animals and hay storage. The 19th century saw the introduction of a basement under the barn to allow for the easy collection and storage of a winter's worth of manure from the animals sheltered within the building. The bank barn is characterized by the location of its main floor above grade, either through building into a hillside or by raising the building on a foundation. This innovation, aided by the introduction of windows for light and ventilation, would eventually be joined by the introduction of space to shelter more animals under the main floor of the barn.
Field Notes
This building is the one remaining barn from a complex of three which were once arranged in a horseshoe facing the road. The building sits back from and above the road in front of the associated house. It was once part of a complex of three buildings that created a work yard facing the road.[JS]