A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain. As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, cow house, sheep barn, potato barn. In the British Isles, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for unthreshed cereals and fodder, the terms byre or shippon being applied to cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as stables. In mainland Europe, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings. In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing.
Jettying is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the available space in the building without obstructing the street. Jettied floors are also termed jetties. In the U.S., the most common surviving colonial version of this is the garrison house. Most jetties are external, but some early medieval houses were built with internal jetties.
A bressummer, breastsummer, summer beam is a load-bearing beam in a timber-framed building. The word summer derived from sumpter or French sommier, "a pack horse", meaning "bearing great burden or weight". "To support a superincumbent wall", "any beast of burden", and in this way is similar to a wall plate.
A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill or bank, the upper and the lower floors could be accessed from ground level, one area at the top of the hill and the other at the bottom. The second level of a bank barn could also be accessed from a ramp if a hill was unavailable.
The John H. Addams Homestead, also known as the Jane Addams Birthplace, is located in the Stephenson County village of Cedarville, Illinois, United States. The homestead property, a 5.5-acre (22,000 m2) site, includes an 1840s era Federal style house, a Pennsylvania-style barn, and the remains of John H. Addams' mill complex. The house was built in two portions, in 1846 and 1854 by Addams; he added some minor additions during the 1870s. Other major alterations took place during a 1950s modernization of the home. The homestead has been noted for its significance to industry and politics. On September 6, 1860, future Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jane Addams was born in the house.
Pole framing or post-frame construction is a simplified building technique that is an alternative to the labor-intensive traditional timber framing technique. It uses large poles or posts buried in the ground or on a foundation to provide the vertical structural support, along with girts to provide horizontal support. The method was developed and matured during the 1930s as agricultural practices changed, including the shift toward engine-powered farm equipment and the demand for cheaper, larger barns and storage areas.
Brook Farm is a historic country estate farm at 4203 Twenty Mile Stream Road in Cavendish, Vermont. It includes one of the state's grandest Colonial Revival mansion houses, and surviving outbuildings of a model farm of the turn of the 20th century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The property is now home to the Brook Farm Vineyard.
The Michael and Magdealena Bixler Farmstead, also known as the John Rudy County Park, is an historic, American property that is located in East Manchester Township, Pennsylvania, York County, Pennsylvania.
The McCalls Ferry Farm, also known as the Robert and Matthew McCall Farm, Atkins-Trout Farm, and Kilgore Farm, is an historic, American farm and national historic district located in Lower Chanceford Township in York County, Pennsylvania.
The Freitag Homestead is a historic farm begun in 1848 in the town of Washington, Green County, Wisconsin. It is also the site of the first Swiss cheese factory in Wisconsin. The farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Siegfried's Dale Farm, also known as the Rodale Research Center or Rodale Institute, is an historic, American home and farm complex that is located in Maxatawny Township, Pennsylvania.
The Squire Cheyney Farm is an historic, American farm and national historic district that is located in Thornbury Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Baily Farm is a historic home and barn located in West Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The house was built about 1795, and is a two-story, five bay, stuccoed stone dwelling in a vernacular Federal style. It has a gable roof with gable end chimneys. Also on the property is a frame bank barn on a stone foundation. It is believed to date to the 18th century.
The New England Barn was the most common style of barn built in most of the 19th century in rural New England and variants are found throughout the United States. This style barn superseded the ”three-bay barn” in several important ways. The most obvious difference is the location of the barn doors on the gable-end(s) rather than the sidewall(s). The New England and three bay barns were used similarly as multipurpose farm buildings but the New England barns are typically larger and have a basement. Culturally the New England Barn represents a shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming thus are larger and show significant changes in American building methods and technologies. Most were used as dairy barns but some housed teams of oxen which are generally called teamster barns. Sometimes these barns are simply called “gable fronted” and “gable fronted bank barns” but these terms are also used for barns other than the New England style barn such as in Maryland and Virginia which is not exactly the same style as found in New England. A similar style found in parts of the American mid-west and south is called a transverse frame barn or transverse crib barn.
The Stahly–Nissley–Kuhns Farm is a historic farm located at Nappanee, Elkhart County, Indiana. Nappanee was established in 1874. The Farm is part of Amish Acres, which includes the old farmstead and additional structures brought in to show Amish life.
John McGreer Barn and Crib are a historic building (barn) and structure located in rural Harrison Township, Lee County, Iowa, United States. They are located on a farm northwest of the town of Donnellson. The agricultural buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
The Daniel McConn Barn is a historic agricultural building located in near Fort Madison, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. It is a bank barn that is built into a south-facing slope. The south exposure of the basement level of the structure allowed protection of livestock in cold weather. The Pennsylvania-type barn was built around 1857 on a farm owned by Daniel McConn, a native of County Down, Ireland. He made his way to Fort Madison in 1837 where he became a merchant. While he owned the farm, it was worked by a tenant farmer. The foundation of the structure is of rubble construction and the sides of the upper structure are of vertical board-and-batten siding. It is capped with a low-pitched, gable roof that features three pyramid-shaped hip roofed ventilation cupolas located along the ridge.
The William and Mary (Messersmith) Seerley Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse are historic buildings located on a farm southwest of Earlham, Iowa, United States. The Seerleys moved from Indiana and settled on their 200-acre (81 ha) farm in 1856, and built a log cabin the same year as their residence. They built a permanent home in 1861, and around the same time the combination milkhouse and smokehouse was built. The barn followed around 1876. These two buildings are early examples of well preserved agricultural building. The two rooms of the milkhouse-smokehouse sit at right angles from each other. The single-story structure is composed of finished cut rubble. It features a stone lined well, water troughs that cooled and stored dairy products, the smokehouse, and a covered outdoor work area where food was processed and laundry. The Sweitzer Pennsylvania barn is composed of native limestone on the lower level, and a heavy timber haymow with forebay on the upper level. It was built into the side of a south facing hill, and the forebay extends 8 feet (2.4 m) on the south side. The buildings and the connecting stone walkway were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
An outbuilding, sometimes called an accessory building or a dependency, is a building that is part of a residential or agricultural complex but detached from the main sleeping and eating areas. Outbuildings are generally used for some practical purpose, rather than decoration or purely for leisure. This article is limited to buildings that would typically serve one property, separate from community-scale structures such as gristmills, water towers, fire towers, or parish granaries. Outbuildings are typically detached from the main structure, so places like wine cellars, root cellars and cheese caves may or may not be termed outbuildings depending on their placement. A buttery, on the other hand, is never an outbuilding because by definition is it is integrated into the main structure.
