NBA Virtual Lecture #2

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Join us for another presentation in support of barn-preservation education

This free lecture will be hosted via Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in learning more about historic barns!

It will be held Wednesday, September 30th at 6 pm EST and is entitled, “The History of Agriculture as Told by Barns.” See the description below for details.

To register for this event, send an email to RSVP with your name and location (city/county, state) to info@barnalliance.org by Sunday, September 27th. We will send an email with the details to call or login to all registrants on September 29th.

(If you missed our first lecture, be sure to check it out here!)

September 30th: “The History of Agriculture as Told by [New England] Barns”

Presenter: John C. Porter

Keywords: New England Agriculture, Barn Types, Timber-Framing/Historic Construction Methods, NRHP Evaluation and Criterion A

The evolution of barn architecture tells the story of New Hampshire agriculture. Barns changed from the early English style, to Yankee style, to gambrel and then pole barns to accommodate the changing agriculture. This presentation will be a chronological walk through time, with photo illustrations of barns around the state that are examples of these eras of agricultural history. 

This lecture is geared towards architects, engineers, preservation contractors, cultural resource professionals who may not be familiar with barns and general barn enthusiasts, everyone can learn from this exploration of historic farm buildings!

John C. Porter was raised on a dairy farm in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a B.S. Degree in Animal Science, and then went on to get a master’s degree from Cornell University in Animal Nutrition and Farm Management. Later he earned a master’s degree from Bob Jones University in Education Administration. He served as a Dairy Specialist for the UNH Cooperative Extension from 1974 until his retirement in 2006. He still works part-time for UNH and operates his own consulting company, Farm Planning Services, LLC. 

In 2001, he co-authored the book “Preserving Old Barns”; in December of 2007, was editor and contributing author of “The History and Economics of the New Hampshire Dairy Industry”; and in 2011 wrote the agriculture chapter for the Concord History book, “Crosscurrents of Change”. In 2019 he published a second edition of the Preserving Old Barns book.

NBA Launches Virtual Barn Preservation Lecture Series

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Join us for a series of virtual presentations led by experienced practitioners across the country in support of barn-preservation education

All lectures will be hosted via Zoom and are free to attend – open to anyone with an interest in learning more about historic barns!

The first presentation in our series – to be held Wednesday, August 12th at 6 pm EST – is entitled, “How to Speak Barn: the Language and Nuances of Barn Anatomy and the Language We Use to Describe Them.” See the description below for details.

To register for this event, send an email to RSVP with your name and location (city/county, state) to info@barnalliance.org by Sunday, August 9th. We will send an email with the details to call or login to all registrants on August 11th.

August 12th: “How to Speak Barn: the Language and Nuances of Barn Anatomy and the Language We Use to Describe Them”

Presenters: Jeffrey L. Marshall and Michael Cuba

Keywords: Barn Terminology, Barn Types, Outbuilding Identification, Timber-Framing/Historic Construction Methods and Techniques, NRHP-Evaluation, Criterion C

Working in preservation in an agricultural context requires uncommon expertise. Barns and other farm buildings require a specialized vocabulary and a working knowledge of the historical evolution of design and use. Learn the lingo, how to recognize change, and how to evaluate and describe elements necessary for National Register designation.

The language used to characterize our barns has varied from person to person and publication to publication over the centuries. Efforts to develop a coherent and unified way of describing these buildings have come far over the past few decades.

This lecture will explore appropriate terminology and the precedents that support this language. The more familiar we become with common nomenclature, the more effectively we are able to share our observations with one another and the easier it is to evaluate particular barns in context with similar barns.

Although this lecture is geared towards architects, engineers, preservation contractors, cultural resource professionals who may not be familiar with barns and general barn enthusiasts, everyone can learn from this exploration of historic farm buildings!

Jeffrey L. Marshall serves as President of the Heritage Conservancy based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, leading its efforts to conserve and preserve more than 15,000 acres of open space, farmland, wildlife habitat, and important watershed areas, along with many cultural historic assets in Bucks and Montgomery counties. Jeff has over 40 years of combined experience in land protection and historic preservation, and has authored several books on the architecture of southeastern Pennsylvania.
He has been a leader on the National Barn Alliance board of directors for over 10 years, serving as Vice President, President, and currently as Past President. He also serves on the boards of the Historic Barn & Farm Foundation of Pennsylvania and Preservation Pennsylvania.

Michael Cuba is a co-founder of Knobb Hill Joinery, a historic preservation company in northern Vermont focused on traditional restorative joinery techniques. He also operates Transom HPC, a small consulting firm offering dendrochronology coring services, research, and documentation for historic timbered structures. 
Michael is an active member of the Traditional Timber Framer’s Research and Advisory Group. He has served in various leadership capacities with the Timber Framers Guild and currently serves as editor, along with Adam Miller, of the Guild’s quarterly journal, TIMBER FRAMING.
In 2019 Michael was elected to serve as the secretary of the National Barn Alliance’s board of directors.

What We Can Learn About Historic Barns in America from a Decade and the Agricultural Census

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Danae Peckler, architectural historian, Fredericksburg, VA

In 2007 and 2017—thanks to the lobbying efforts of a few National Barn Alliance (NBA) board members, particularly Rod Scott, and our great network of barn preservation advocates, including many active supporters of state and local preservation organizations—the United States Agricultural Department (USDA) put a simple question to the farmers of America’s working farms in the Agricultural Census: “Do you have a barn built prior to 1960?”

From the “yes” or “no” answers of those farmers, a set of statistics emerged to help advocates for the preservation of historic barns get a sense of just how many old barns existed within each state. 

The data collected from this effort was far from perfect. For starters, it only gathered information from “working farms,” ignoring pre-1960 barns on farm properties that no longer meet that definition, as well as those that survive in suburban and urban areas. Furthermore, by answering just yes or no, farms with multiple pre-1960 barns were represented as a single unit. Yet the information gathered from this effort was a fine (if not the only) place to start. Obtaining these statistics was an attempt to quantify what is the largest problem facing barn preservation advocates: the size and scale of America’s agrarian landscape.

Acknowledging the limitations of what became known as “the barn question” in the 2007 Census, the NBA board of directors set about repeating the experiment a decade later in 2017. By asking the same exact question, we hoped to gain insight on the big question we are all looking to quantify: “How many old barns have we lost across the country?”

To find out, Rod Scott and I worked together two years in advance of the census to connect with officials at the USDA, drafted a sample letter for friends of old barns and barn preservation advocates to send the agency, and called on each of you to spread the word and lobby for the question’s return in 2017. And it worked!

Barn lovers from across the country heeded the call to action and the results became public in the Spring of 2019. To better digest the statistics, I created a table with an alphabetical listing of states to compare the results of “the barn question” from 2007 and 2017.

This image was produced by the USDA in support of the 2017 Agricultural Census. State and county-level census results are available from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Not surprisingly, each and every state in the USA saw a decline in the number of working farms reporting at least one pre-1960 barn.  And while we may be inclined to look for the biggest winners and losers by the figures, it is important to be mindful of their context. This is a count of “working farms” with at least one barn built prior to 1960 in each state (though county-level data is also available in Table 43, Special Characteristics!), and not every pre-1960 barn would be thought of as “historic” by many people’s standards, even those of professional preservationists. 

Yet, however small this slice of the bigger picture may be, the limitations of these statistics should not stop us from using them to illustrate the loss that no one is willing to dispute: America’s historic barns (farms and outbuildings!) are disappearing at an increasing rate. And it will also surprise few that, in general, the number of working farms and farmers are also in decline.

A few takeaways from “the barn question” and the last decade from a national perspective: 

  • As a nation, 28 percent fewer working farms reported old barns on their properties.
  • Individual states reported between 10 and 45 percent fewer working farms with at least one barn built prior to 1960, with a mean loss of 27 percent.
  • In a handful of states, properties with a pre-1960 barn make up less than 10 percent of the total number of working farms.
  • On the whole, less than a quarter of America’s working farms have a pre-1960 barn (the mean is 23 percent). 

“Historic” or not, it is well past time that we started bending over backward to thoughtfully record and catalog the old barns and outbuildings that dot our farms from sea to shining sea. For preservation professionals that means getting inside the barn to note the specifics of its framing and learning to recognize common modifications that reflect popular agricultural practices. A good general book that I recommend for anyone across the country is Allen Noble and Richard Cleek’s The Old Barn Book: A Field Guide to North American Barns & Other Farm Structures (1995). Although more specific barn field guides and rural documentation sources can be found for different regions, states, and counties, The Old Barn Book is an easy read with great drawings from M. Margaret Geib. 

As increasingly endangered cultural-historic assets of America’s greatest industry, the study of historic barns and farm buildings by preservation professionals has grown in the past 25 years since the NBA was founded. Yet the list of obstacles to preserving them grows faster.

How we justify their historical significance matters less and less—this is not a battle that will ever be won, it’s simply a matter of how much we stand to lose. 

Related articles and pages that might be of interest:

Dating Barns in Holland Township, New Jersey with Dendrochronology (Part 3)

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By Carla Cielo, Architectural Historian, Historic Preservation Consultant, Designer, and longtime NBA member.  Two articles on this dendrochronology project have been previously published in the Barn Journal. Check out both stories: Part 1 & Part 2!

(The Historic Preservation Commission of Holland Township, New Jersey, hired ‘Oxford Tree Ring Dating’ to date nine barns with dendrochrolology.  This study has been funded, in part, with grants provided by the New Jersey Historical Commission.  It was hoped that a study of this kind would answer questions related to ethnic settlement patterns.)

The first barn dated with dendrochronology in Holland Township was the Hammerstone Barn – a ground-level, three bay, heavy-timbered, swing beam barn that is located in the hilly section of the township about 8 miles inland from the Delaware River. This preliminary dendrochronology study was completed in 2007 by a colleague who provides dendrochronological services as a side venture. Only 3 samples were taken from the floor structure in a crawlspace: one from a girder that supports the joists at midspan in the crawl space of the west bay and 2 from floor joists. No samples were taken from the main barn frame. Samples were sent to a lab for analysis. The dates were non-conclusive: sample #1 dated 1787, sample #2 gave no date, and sample #3 dated 1785. The possibility of a 1787 construction date was assumed.

After dating six other ground-level, swing beam barns that ranged in date from 1794 to 1812, the 1787 date was questioned. The character of the framing of the Hammerstone Barn looks far more advanced (younger) in its construction methodology than barns that dated to the 1790s. For example, the interior bents of the 1794 James Salter Barn are framed with just two unconnected cambered tie-beams. Whereas in the Hammerstone Barn, struts and passing braces are incorporated into the swing beam bent to join the upper and lower tie beams. This is characteristic of the ground barns that dated after 1803 in Holland Township. It was, therefore, decided to date the barn again using a professional dendrochronologist who operates his own in-house lab. The findings were interesting, to say the least.

This time 7 samples were taken in the barn: 3 from the upper barn frame and 4 from the floor joists (including one joist that had been sampled previously). Two samples revealed that the trees from which the timbers were cut were felled during the winter of 1803/04 suggesting that the barn was built in the spring of 1804. The five remaining samples, unfortunately, could not be dated. The 1804 date, however, is “right on” when compared to the construction details of several other dated barns.

To add further interest, the data was run again on the three samples that were taken in 2007. One of them did indeed date to 1787. Another matched the chronology of the sample that dated 1787 up to 1758 with a “t-value” of over 11. The “t-value” provides an indication of the quality of the match against a reference chronology. A t-value greater then 5 indicates a regional match; above 10 suggests that the samples came from the same tree. In this case, the t-value over 11 indicates that two joists were cut from the same tree and that the sapwood was probably lost from the latter sample. Does this indicate that at least some of the joists were reused from a 1787 structure? Or does it indicate that the sapwood was lost from both samples and that both would date to 1804 if the sapwood remained? Since the core drills appear to have been lost, we likely will never know. It is surely tempting to fantasize a former 1787 log structure being reused as floor joists! But if this was the case, wouldn’t a 1787 date have been re-identified by the second dendrological study?

In conclusion, dendrochronology is a highly valuable tool, but it must be part of a comprehensive study which takes into account a variety of methods to date a building (saw cut, nails, framing methodology etc.). Propagation of a false date can be detrimental to future barn historians.

Renovating the Little Red Barn

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This guest post comes to us from one determined barn owner in Allen County, Indiana, and mirrors many of the renovation stories we at the NBA hear regularly, but Jessica Erpelding has the grit and grace to see through her efforts to legally and legitimately open an event barn for weddings and other gatherings–more importantly, to share the ups and downs she has faced along the way. To learn more about Jessica’s efforts to save this barn and share it with her community, click here! 

Also, please note that we at the NBA know that not every old barn can be converted into assembly space for reasons of building codes/ zoning. We appreciate the and applaud the successful adaptations of these buildings, but know that this type of conversion is not the right fit for many barns across the country.

My name is Jessica Erpelding and this is my unexpected journey of how I fell in love with my barn and its story.  When my husband and I were looking to buy our first home, we were supposed to look at another house down a block but we accidentally took a wrong left turn and stumbled upon this property that had been for sale for quite some time.  We fell in love with the house, property, and the barn that was rundown but still a perk.  However, we had no idea about the history of the barn until after we purchased it.

The Little Red Barn Today.

The bank barn is shown on a 1938 aerial picture of the property and may have been built prior to that. It was used for livestock up until Ruby and Oscar Hanefeld purchased the property in the early 1960s.  They successfully transformed the barn into a popular reception hall in our area, that was in business until the late 1980s. This was no small feat.  They built a beautiful hardwood dance floor upstairs by connecting the two existing haylofts. They also added onto the barn to accommodate bathrooms and running water.  They even managed to heat the building and run the business year-round.  At the time that Ruby and Oscar accomplished all of this, the property was located on a dirt/stone road and barn reception halls were unconventional.

Interior Image Showing Holes in the Roof.

Prior to us purchasing the property, the barn had sat with little to no maintenance for 25 years.  The roof was leaking badly, there was severe water damage to the inside and part of the dance floor, and it was cluttered with remnants of the flea markets Ruby used to have from time to time. The upstairs was covered in about 3-4 inches of bird poop.  It’s funny because I remember when the realtor showed us the barn he said to us, “Think of it as a diamond in the rough.” We had later decided to clean it up enough to have our own wedding reception in it. It was when I was pressure washing the floor upstairs, that I realized it was all beautiful hardwood.  I remember thinking to myself, “There’s my diamond!”

The idea of bringing back this once thriving reception hall was a far-fetched dream, but a dream I was passionate about none-the-less.  Over the years, we managed to replace the roof and fix the water damage.  The more we fixed, the more the barn along with the dreams of its future came alive. So far, we have gotten approval from our county to go ahead with our reception hall plans.  However, the codes and permits required for such a business in Indiana, especially here in Allen County, are much more strict than they were back when the Hanefeld family ran the business.

The Little Red Barn was run as an “unofficial” business in the past, meaning that it was never registered with the state and there are no tax records for such a business. So we were not able to be grandfathered into any zoning regulations.  In the beginning, I assumed that we could fix up the barn little by little by charging discounted rental rates and using the proceeds as “donations” to invest back in to the barn.  I put the barn up on Facebook, not really advertising that I was renting it out in October just to feel it out a little bit.  The response was immense. Before I knew it I had 9 bookings in 2 months with no advertising. I thought this was great, and it was going to happen. I figured, when we got it to the point of where it was up to code, we would start it as an official business.   Come to find out that everything about this plan was wrong and could have gotten me in some hot water.

My husband’s uncle happens to work for the Allen County planning department.  He told me that in the last year alone, he shut down three barns that were doing the exact same thing I was planning to do.  They received huge fines and were closed down.  One of the barns was a repeat offender and they will be unable to open their doors for another 10 years.  This honestly shocked me. I asked him, “But what if I told them the people using my barn were friends or family and they were “donating” to my barn?”  He said, “Jess, I’ve heard it all before and it won’t matter.  Once me, or someone like me, shows up at your doorstep, the gig is up.  It only takes one person to complain or report what you are doing before we show up.” I’m not going to lie, this was disappointing to hear.  However, what he said made sense. It’s not just a tax issue. It’s a public safety issue.  There are codes and permits required to make sure that you are and continue to stay up to a certain level of service to ensure the safety of your guests.  I knew that I did not want to get fined or shut down. I still had those 9 bookings to worry about.  I also knew that I did not want the IRS down my throat or have somebody injured, or possibly killed in my reception hall.  So there was only one thing to do…take the big plunge!

Now keep in mind that this conversation I had with my uncle took place in January of this year 2017.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Luckily, he helped guide me to the next steps I had to take quickly. First step, get in touch with your local counties planning department. Our planning department in Allen County offers you to schedule a conference with the heads of departments such as the board of health, board of zoning, board of traffic and highway safety, etc. This is a great opportunity and take advantage of it if your county offers it.  In the conference you can discuss your plans on what you would like to do and what you want your business to offer, and they give you feedback as to what applications or permits you need to implement your plans.

In my case, the barn is located on an A1 zoning district, which means residential and agricultural use only.  However, there is a loop hole to starting a reception hall and other businesses on an agricultural property.  Per our county’s zoning rules a reception hall is allowed with approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals of a special use application. The application itself cost $350.  I had to submit the application with the land deed and a detailed site plan.  A detailed site plan is basically a drawing of the property and what it will look like once you start your project.  You can draw this yourself or you can have an architect draw one for you. I chose the latter because I was advised that if at your hearing with the Board of Zoning Appeals, your drawing wasn’t right or missing something you have a greater chance of getting your application denied. That meant you would have to resubmit the application, another $350, and wait another month for another hearing.  I wanted to do everything right the first time, so I hired a local engineer.  Honestly, I would recommend this.  Engineers do this for a living they know your county’s codes and requirements like the back of their hand.  So, it takes out a lot of the guesswork and you are going to need one later on when you submit paperwork to the state anyways.

I also found out in my conference from the department of traffic and highway safety that a parking lot is required for such a business. Parking lots here in Allen County are required to be hard paved surfaces and they usually figure 3 people per car for your maximum occupancy. My maximum occupancy is 200, so I needed a lot for 70 cars. This was way bigger than I was planning and it sounded really expensive. My uncle helped me again by telling me that there is a variance application I could submit to request gravel instead of asphalt or concrete.  The application was another $350 but being allowed to have gravel would save me thousands, so I submitted a variance application as well.

Second step is a hearing with the Board of Zoning appeals. This is a make or break process and is very important.  The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) has reviewed your application and detailed site plan at this point, and this is where you plead your case. It is a great help to have the support of your neighbors and community.  In most cases, this is their biggest concern.  They can either approve or deny your project at this point. If your project is approved you are free to move on to the next phase, submitting applications to the state.  However, if you get denied you have two choices, try again or give up your project.  I had the approval of my neighbors and our mayor.  The neighbor to the east of my property just requested that I have some sort of landscaping buffer put up to give him more privacy, which I found fair enough.  I had our mayor write me a letter that I brought to the hearing.  If you can’t get a letter from your mayor, letters from your neighbors are just as important.  I am proud to say that as of March 15th we have gotten approval from Allen County to have a reception hall on the property.

Now we are moving on to our state paperwork. This will rezone the barn into a commercial property once it is inspected and up to code.  This part is not cheap by any means.  The barn used to have a septic, but it is unusable.  So, in order to install a new septic system it must meet commercial standards.  To do this you will need to hire a septic designer to submit the proper paperwork to state, and a soil scientist to take samples of the dirt and survey the property for the septic designer.  We have already submitted out paperwork to state and they will send me the requirements like how big of a gallon system it has to be and where it has to be located.  As of now, we have a rough idea of how big it has to be and where it has to be located.  Unfortunately, we have a high clay content in our Indiana soil, so the system will have to be located about 3/4 acre away from the barn itself. Needless to say, this is going to be my biggest expense. My engineer is working on the detailed drawing of the inside. This is expensive, but well worth it if you can get it all right the first time around.  We also need to add another stairway to the upstairs dance floor for an emergency exit, smoke and pull fire alarms, and make it handicapped accessible somehow.

When this all started, I had no idea what I was getting into.  This process is very expensive and not easy, but if you take it in baby steps with stride you can do anything. We never prepped for financing because I thought I could have the barn pay for itself.  I have been a stay at home mom for four years, so it’s not that I have bad credit I just have lack of it.  Everything is in my husband’s name and because of this our debt-to-income ratio would be too high for a traditional business loan. So, if you are considering making this journey yourself learn from my mistake and prep yourself financially for a loan.  We have been taking some steps in hopes of qualifying for a loan or financial assistance in the future. This includes cleaning up our credit scores, getting some revolving credit in the form of a credit card that I am keeping at a low balance and paying on time, and registering the business as an LLC and applying for a DUNs # to built up a business credit score.

Most banks do not like to lend to start-up businesses, so make sure that you have a sound business plan.  I have two. One is for potential investors/lenders, and one for traditional banks. You usually need a credit score higher than 720 in order to apply for a start-up business loan. That’s why it is a good idea to build your business credit score as well if you don’t have the greatest credit.  Talk with your local banks and see what they require for business loan and make sure you tell them that it is a start-up business because they may require additional information.  If you get denied, don’t be afraid to ask why. It is the only way you can better your application for the next time around.  We are self-funding everything now until we are able to qualify for a loan, hopefully, in the next few months. Since conventional loans are out of our reach at the moment, I am stepping out of my comfort zone and searching for unconventional funding in the form of investors, lenders, grants, or donations.  I have started a Kickstarter account as well.  If I am successful on this platform, I think I can start a movement that inspires others like me to believe that they too can help save the precious few old barns we have left.  I’m nobody special, so if I can do this anybody can.

The Barn Before the Erpeldings Got to Work!

The point is don’t give up.  I was not in the greatest position to start this venture, but I have accomplished more in the last four months than I had ever dreamed. This IS something that ordinary people can do.  My advice is to reach out to your county, community, neighbors, and family.  Talk about your plans and seek advice.  I know I couldn’t have done what I did if it wasn’t for the advice and support of others.  You will inevitably have bumps in the road, but great things that come easy won’t last and the great things that lasts won’t come easy.