Hidden in Plain Site: Side-Gabled Log Barn
This is a guest post by Jeroen van den Hurk, Ph.D. He is an Architectural Historian based in North Carolina. You never know what the lush climate of North Carolina hides until the dead of winter. While out of a drive on Sunday afternoon, I came across this abandoned side-gabled log barn in Halifax County, NC. This is an unusual building for eastern North Carolina. It was a one-story, double-pen or dogtrot structure used to store hay. It appeared to be an earthfast building with the log sill laid directly on the ground. The logs were halved and saddle notched at the corners, and there...
Read MoreThe Grooms’ Heritage Barn. How a Family Restored their 1915 Stockman’s Barn
This is a post by Charles Leik. Charles is chairman of the National Barn Alliance. It was James Grooms’ great-great grandfather (five generations back) Martin Becker, a German immigrant, who settled in north central Nebraska (Cherry County) in the 1880s. He built a typical barn for this ranching and diversified farming area that housed the cattle, work horses and several cows that produced milk for family use. According to family lore, this first Becker did well given high wheat prices during WWI and as a result raised his second barn around 1915, which was a very large barn for...
Read MoreForming the Future of Barns: Winter Meeting
Are you part of a barn preservation organization? And are looking to network and gain knowledge to strengthen your organization? Then… Join us for our Winter Meeting!!! February 17-19, 2012 • Upper Arlington, OH • The Amelita Mirolo Barn As part of the mission of the National Barn Alliance, we are committed providing a platform for barn preservation organizations and owners to connect and share information. On February 18, we invite barn preservation organizations to join us for networking, educational workshops, informative speakers, and socializing. Joel McCarty, Executive...
Read MoreImagine a landscape without barns? No? Then join us in saving them!
This beautiful barn outside of Erie, CO, is endangered. And due to real estate crash slowing development, has been given a reprieve. For now. In high growth areas near cities and resorts, new development is literally consuming the historic rural landscape. As age, obsolescence and sprawl take their toll, barns are disappearing from the American landscape at a tremendous rate. There are more than 55 million people and 80 percent of our landscape is rural. It is a diverse landscape including farmsteads and ranches. The National Barn Alliance is working with state, local, and national partners...
Read MoreOld New York Barn Survives & Adapts to join the Hi-Tech World
Authored by Keith Cramer This abandoned 19th-century barn was spared as the 1,250 acre high-tech commercial office park grew around it for many years. The developer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first engineering college in the US, renovated the 1760’s farmhouse for the Park’s main office. They had no real use for the farm’s barn, but were committed to saving it until a use was found. After twenty years, and twenty-three office buildings were built, a donor, Pat, stepped forward to support Park Director Michael Wacholder’s, vision of turning the barn into a meeting and...
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About The Barn Journal
NBA’s blog, The Barn Journal, is named in honor of the work of Past President, Charles Leik, and the website he started in 1996. Charles communicated with a number of barn owners around the country and compiled their stories for all to enjoy. The site continues to feature a number of topics related to saving old barns and is known to many in the preservation community as a valuable resource. 