TWO BARNS - TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION - Visitors to the Historic Barns Park and Botanic Garden are often captivated by the two beautiful brick barns that grace the center of the park. Although they were both built in the early 1900s (the Historic Barn in 1900 and the Cathedral Barn around 1932), and although they are both built of bricks, they are actually quite different. The difference is more obvious if you go inside each of them (the Historic Barn is not open to the public at this time). Both are two-story barns, both housed cows for milking and calving at the lower levels and hay and straw at the upper levels. It was cheaper and more efficient to combine feed, bedding and animals in one building than two separate structures. The hay and straw in the upper mow helped insulate the barn in harsh climates (making it more comfortable for the cows below), and it was efficient for workers to drop hay and straw through chutes to the cows below. The need to increase mow capacity to store more hay, for a growing dairy herd, was one reason that the State Hospital Farm shifted from the Historic Barns gable-roofed timber frame barn to the gothic-roof style of the Cathedral Barn. Framed with dimensional lumber, these self-supporting roof forms created larger interior spaces with fewer bents and crossbeams to obstruct the movement of equipment and workers inside. Here are pictures of the interiors of both the Historic Barn (with the timbered braces and crossbeams) and Cathedral Barn (with the open gothic style roof).
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 02:13:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015