I’m working on converting (a small portion of) my 1810 post and beam dairy barn into a horse-friendly space and I’m just hoping for inspiration/camaraderie. I looove the look of the barn and the old beams but there’s a lot of bad, too. I want to see your dirty old barns, your refurbished barns, your making-do barns, all your old barns! 
Love the old barns. Unfortunately the 3 story bank barn on my place was way beyond repair when I got it so it was knocked into a hole. I did keep the foundation and have a nice new barn on the old foundation.
The termites ate the old barn, thank goodness.
It was a real fire trap, having only one small entrance and no way to add another.
That red barn is a beauty!
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“medium”,“data-attachmentid”:10709338}[/ATTACH]
My 1933 bank barn. The horses have the lean-to shed on the right that was added on by previous owners. The main floor is double layers of bricks for the walls. It’s a money pit, though. New roofed twice. (Got screwed by the first roofer). North end had to be cabled to pull it back together and the SW quarter had to be jacked up, and have a new wall installed. It’s concrete block on the inside on that corner with the brick reinstalled as a facade on the outside. The workers told me they could feel the impressions of the fingers of the brick makers who pulled the original bricks from the mold. The house is cool. It was supposedly built from left over materials from the World’s Fair in Chicago.
8 Likes
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“barn1.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10711071}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“IMG_20200819_170312.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10711072}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“medium”,“data-attachmentid”:10711073}[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“IMG_20200819_170300.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10711074}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“IMG_20200819_170241.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10711075}[/ATTACH]
Some photos from our early 1900s bank barn. Everything is oak - check out the cross section for a good view of some of these super old, strong beams. These were cut by hand, and later reinforced. I’ll probably get a dendro date on it at some point to get a more exact date on when it was built. It’s about 70 feet long, and 40 from the ground to the gutters on the back side (bottom level).
Originally, the stalls would have been where the center aisle is now. The area “past” the stalls, but still under the top level provide a run-in shed area. I’ve added rails above the stall walls to make it safer for large horses. We have many ongoing projects, but love the solid bones of this barn 
8 Likes
@MapleFarm how does one go about getting that dendro dating done? Are there commercial labs that you know of? That would be really interesting to know for our barn. I’ve researched the type of cut nails found in our barn, and the last known manufacture of that type was around 1880. But we all know farmers hold on to everything–it’s not as if nails “expire”. So I don’t necessarily trust the 1880 dividing line.
Hi @HungarianHippo - I worked in dendro in grad school and for a bit before I went into my current field. I have a contact I will send to you via PM.
Yes, archaeology would typically agree that the date isn’t so certain - especially in rural areas where people held on to materials, and even kept manufacturing later. However, if ALL nails are the same type, that might be suggestive that it is earlier.
Love all these barns.
