Barns Of New York

Barns of New York explores and celebrates the agricultural and architectural diversity of the Empire State-from Long Island to Lake Erie, the Southern Tier to the North Country-providing a unique compendium of the vernacular architecture of rural New York. Through descriptions of the appearance and working of representative historic farm buildings, Barns of New York also serves as an authoritative reference for historic preservation efforts across the state. Cynthia G. Falk connects agricultural buildings-both extant examples and those long gone-with the products and processes they made and make possible. Great attention is paid not only to main barns but also to agricultural outbuildings such as chicken coops, smokehouses, and windmills. Falk further emphasizes the types of buildings used to support the cultivation of products specifically associated with the Empire State, including hops, apples, cheese, and maple syrup. Enhanced by more than two hundred contemporary and historic photographs and other images, this book provides historical, cultural, and economic context for understanding the rural landscape. In an appendix are lists of historic farm buildings open to the public at living history museums and historic sites. Through a greater awareness of the buildings found on farms throughout New York, readers will come away with an increased appreciation for the state's rich agricultural and architectural legacy.

Barns of New York explores and celebrates the agricultural and architectural diversity of the Empire State—from Long Island to Lake Erie, the Southern Tier to the North Country—providing a unique compendium of the vernacular architecture of rural New York. Through descriptions of the appearance and working of representative historic farm buildings, Barns of New York also serves as an authoritative reference for historic preservation efforts across the state. Cynthia G. Falk connects agricultural buildings—both extant examples and those long gone—with the products and processes they made and make possible. Great attention is paid not only to main barns but also to agricultural outbuildings such as chicken coops, smokehouses, and windmills. Falk further emphasizes the types of buildings used to support the cultivation of products specifically associated with the Empire State, including hops, apples, cheese, and maple syrup. Enhanced by more than two hundred contemporary and historic photographs and other images, this book provides historical, cultural, and economic context for understanding the rural landscape. In an appendix are lists of historic farm buildings open to the public at living history museums and historic sites. Through a greater awareness of the buildings found on farms throughout New York, readers will come away with an increased appreciation for the state’s rich agricultural and architectural legacy.

This book begins with an intriguing overview of the first five round barns built across America, including one in New York State. Elliott Stewart, who built the first octagon barn in the Empire State in 1874, is revealed to be a passionate original whose vigorous editorial campaign led to the construction of a dozen such barns. The author next introduces John McArthur who constructed a polygonal (sixteen-sided, double octagon) barn so huge it was the biggest in the state and second largest in the nation! Case histories document five other singular New York barns of varying configurations. Abundant photos make these bygone barns spring to life. Floor plans of the earliest barns show why the round shape engaged farmers at the turn of the century. The book also explains why true-round barns, born of silos, surpassed octagon barns in popularity. A special section on seven true-round barns in New York offers historical data and rare anecdotes by present owners.

At Home in the American Barn examines the fascinating possibilities for living and adaptive reuse provided by the expansive spaces and rough-hewn look of these traditional structures. Nationwide, Americans are turning to structures such as the barn with a mind to renovating them to fit the lifestyles of today, redesigning these often-wonderful places of the past into residential spaces. At Home in the American Barn embraces the dream to slow things down and return to basics and shares some success stories, as made plain by the buildings themselves.This richly illustrated volume focuses on the barn as home. Each of the structures featured has been adapted from its original utilitarian purpose to allow for comfortable, joyous living. Built at first as places for work, barns nevertheless often demonstrate fine craftsmanship and artistry. This volume emphasizes the rare beauty of these structures and shows throughout elegant solutions for living in these beautifully imagined homes. Soaring rafters here allow for dramatic chandeliers in one home or a wall of magnificent bookcases in another. Spaces that are unconventional in a traditional domestic sense here serve as springboards for inspiration that allow for, in one home, a spiral staircase of fantasy made from hand-planed wood, and, in another, a wall of glass that lets in the sun. At Home in The American Barn shows the way that this can be done successfully and artfully.

A generously illustrated handbook for identifying and understanding structures that symbolize the region's unique cultural and historical landscape

The heart of every working farm and ranch, the barn is an icon of rural America. This book chronicles – and celebrates – all the main types, and looks at how these treasures of early American architecture developed. It explains how a wealth of immigrant construction methods and range of environments and climates resulted in a fascinating variety of barn styles in the United States, from the earliest rare Dutch examples to simpler English types and others in more surprising shapes (round or even polygonal) crafted by the Shakers in the 1800s. It highlights the most notable, famous and historic barns that the reader can visit, and features the efforts of conservation groups to preserve America's barns and find innovative ways to repurpose these glorious old structures as homes and studios – and as living monuments of rural heritage.