Barns That Tell A Story

This is the kind of barn I remember. We looped the tobacco onto the sticks under the shelter, then hung the sticks on the racks. At the end of the day, the men would hang them in the rafters of the barns to be cured. Brings back a lot of good memories. I can almost smell the fragrance of the curing tobacco.

 

Barn #3

Were "Sunday Drives" a form of family entertainment for anyone else when you were a kid?

On one trip, I'd guess I was 6 or 7 years old, we drove past a long sprawling building, way off in the distance. My father said it was a barn on the O.C. Barber farm and they grew mushrooms in the basement. I wasted time yesterday trying to find out if I remembered this correctly (right down to figuring out which road we could have been driving on at the time. )

It had to be this building---a cattle barn in Barberton, OH. It was 750' long, 40' wide, and could house 600 cattle.



Back side


Between 1880 and 1920, Ohio Columbus (O.C.) Barber owned the Diamond Match Company. At one time his factory produced 80% of all matches sold in the US and was the largest employer in the Akron/Barberton area.

At age 68 O. C. began building a farm dedicated to exploring advanced farming techniques. Completed in 1912, the farm had 35 buildings spread over 3000 acres. The largest building was this cattle barn, called, simply, Barn #3. Unfortunately, the barn was destroyed by fires in 1954 and 1958.

And the mushrooms? The farm had 12 acres of state-of-the-art heated greenhouses and produced fresh vegetables year round. Two brothers, Menno and Rufus Yoder, who managed the greenhouses, bought part of the farm in 1921 after O.C. died. They grew chrysanthemums in the greenhouses and mushrooms in part of Barn #3 under the name, “The Magic City Mushroom Company.”

 

Barn (owned by a former maker of matches) burns down ......hmmmmmm.

 

They claim the fires were due to spontaneous combustion, but you might be right. There has apparently been a constant battle between those that want to preserve the remaining farm buildings, and those that want to develop the property.

Pig Barn when it was first built (300 feet long, still standing today): CLICK HERE

 

This cartoon reminded me of a fellow I used to know many years ago who collected 2 things---two person cross-cut saws, and heart pine timbers from old barns and houses that were being demolished.

He is 92 years old now, and just donated some 178 year old timbers to a group restoring an old barn on a plantation in Georgia. They were used to replace the sills.

 

Barn wood Treasures:

 

Barn conversion, High Easter, Essex





Located in the south-east area of the Uttlesford District, midway between Margaret Roding, to the south, and High Easter to the north-east, the barn is set in rural surroundings and occupies an elevated prominent position in the landscape.

It is curtilage listed to the adjacent Grade II farm house. The barn comprises a single 17th century timber framed structure of five bays with a central midstrey to the rear. Externally it is finished with black timber feather edged boarding under a steeply pitched tiled roof.

The proposal provides for the conversion of the barn to a three-bedroom residential property. This involves the insertion of a new first floor over approximately half the floor area, retaining the middle section open to the rafters, providing a full height open entrance hall and dining area. In addition, the ground floor provides an open plan kitchen/breakfast area, sitting room, utility and cloak room. Three bedrooms are provided on the first floor, all with en-suite bathrooms.

Planning permission and Listed Building consent were granted in 2009.

 

I love floor plans. Would like to live in that barn house.

Edit to add: Remove 2 bathrooms upstairs.

 

Then you'd know to close the door behind you.

 

The one in the center looks like an old hope chest.

 

Years ago many old barns (and houses) had lightning rods and weathervanes. Not so much anymore. The first time I saw these attachments I thought they were almost as interesting as the buildings themselves.



Apparently when lightning rods were first made commercially, traveling lightning rod salesmen were hired to solicit customers in rural areas. These salesmen were held in regard about the same as door-to-door driveway pavers are today. Some were honest, but many were not.



Short story about an encounter with such a salesman. Written with the typical 19th century style humor. ( Not required reading )

The Lightning-Rod Man - by Herman Melville (1819-1891)
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