Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire State

By Cynthia G. Falk

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Release date: May 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9780801464454

Book preview

To my parents, Jim and Betty Layton, who introduced me to history,

rural landscapes, and the great state of New York

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

1. Diversity, Dairying, and Designing the Main Barn

2. Sheltering the Flock, Processing the Product

3. From Haystacks to Silos

4. A Farm Building for Every Purpose

5. Powering the Farm

Places to Visit

Notes

Glossary

Further Reading

PREFACE

The picture of the farm can be made so pleasing, and the idea of going back to Nature as the source of all sustenance so ingratiating, that it would be possible to build up an effective philosophy on the principle that the architecture of the home should be made to resemble the architecture of the farm, rather than the other way about.

Alfred Hopkins

, Modern Farm Buildings, 1913

Imagine the iconic buildings of New York State. Likely what comes to mind are New York City’s skyscrapers, towering on Manhattan Island. Perhaps colonial Dutch houses or larger nineteenth-century mansions located along the Hudson River surface from a memory bank of celebrated structures. Most people do not think of dairy barns or their accompanying silos when they picture the Empire State’s majestic buildings. Architect-designed masterpieces trump the utilitarian structures used by farmers to store crops and machinery, house animals, and process various products. Yet agricultural buildings can tell us more about New York State’s history and culture than the one-of-a-kind landmarks that are so often pictured in architectural histories and tourist guidebooks. Agricultural buildings convey a sense of beauty in their own right and, despite their apparent commonality, exemplify ingenious design and craftsmanship that pairs form and function.

In this book I challenge our inclination to admire only the exceptional, the artistic, and the urban by celebrating barns and the farmers whose labor shaped these buildings. Barns are indeed tangible reminders of past people, places, processes, and practices. They also continue to be used in the present; old buildings still serve traditional functions or are adapted to help farmers perform new ones even as modern buildings provide the means to complete new tasks or carry out old ones more efficiently. Barns and other farm structures acquaint us with the individual people who designed and used them. They also provide evidence of broad patterns in the production, distribution, and consumption of agricultural goods. Through their form, materials, construction, and style, they exemplify building trends that affected both broad geographic areas and particular locales.

Farming and farm building are central to the history of New York State. Even before European settlement, New York was an important site of agricultural production. As early as the seventeenth century, rich farmland in the river valleys allowed settlers to create surplus crops that Euro-Americans marketed internationally. In the early nineteenth century, the opening of the Erie Canal provided farmers with increased access to markets and led to the creation of new types of structures such as grain elevators, which were designed to facilitate the transportation of large quantities of field crops. Production boomed, and specialized products such as hops, grapes, apples, cabbage, and even tobacco came to bolster the rural economy in various parts of the state. Agricultural periodicals such as the American Agriculturalist and Moore’s Rural New-Yorker, published in New York City and Rochester, respectively, documented model farm practices and the increased acceptance of progressive, scientific farming.¹

In the early twentieth century, Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick’s celebratory book A History of Agriculture in the State of New York glowingly reported on the products of the Empire State: "Farm crops in New York have ever shown a diversity hardly equalled [sic] elsewhere. Almost every agricultural product of economic importance in temperate climates is produced in the State." At that time, dairy goods, potatoes, and forage in the form of hay, clover, and alfalfa were the state’s most valuable crops, followed by orchard products, corn, oats, wheat, and grapes.²

Today in New York, despite increased suburbanization and other changes in land use, active farms still account for 7.1 million acres of land, just less than a quarter of the state’s total area. In comparison to neighboring states, the percentage of farmland (23.8 percent) is only slightly lower than in Pennsylvania (27.3 percent) and significantly higher than in smaller states such as Massachusetts (10.4 percent), Connecticut (13.1 percent), and New Jersey (15.6 percent). In terms of farm products, New York State ranks second in the nation in the acreage planted in corn for silage and third in the value of sales of milk and other dairy products. New York farmers continue to raise a wide assortment of other agricultural goods including fruit, vegetables, field crops, livestock, and poultry.³

In this book I chronicle New York’s rich agricultural heritage by looking at the buildings found on farms, both past and present. The building types addressed include those used to house animals, store or process crops, keep or maintain agricultural equipment, or provide an essential or useful purpose related to agricultural activities.⁴ As a result, I examine not only the main barn but also outbuildings and ancillary structures, from chicken coops to smokehouses to windmills. I limit myself, however, to land-based agriculture and do not address buildings related to farming the state’s rivers, lakes, and coastal waterways for fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants.

In many ways, the agricultural diversity of the Empire State makes it the ideal subject for a book about farm buildings. The vernacular architecture created to meet the needs of New York’s farmers embodies the main trends in American farm life from the seventeenth century to the present day. Because of the state’s varied geography and its long history of agricultural production, there are few types of agricultural structures that have been used in the United States that cannot be found in New York in some form. At the same time, the state boasts several specialized building types that are not commonly found in other places. As a case in point, New World Dutch barns from the colonial and early national periods are largely limited in their geographic distribution to areas that are now part of New York and New Jersey (Figure P.1). The hop house provides another example, this one from the nineteenth century, as during that period its construction and use in the United States was most prevalent in central New York (Figure P.2).

Figure P.1. Detail, Van Bergen Overmantel, ca. 1733, attributed to John Heaten (active ca. 1730–1745), oil on cherry wood, 15 1/4 x 74 3/4. A New World Dutch barn and two hay barracks form a focal point in this painting of an early New York farmstead. Both Dutch barns and hay barracks are associated with colonial Dutch settlers and would have distinguished New York’s rural landscape from that in other regions. (Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N0366.1954. Photograph by Richard Walker.)

Figure P.2. Hop house, ca. 1873, Town of Hartwick, Otsego County. This hop house, repaired with the assistance of a New York State barn grant, features a draft kiln with a pyramidal roof. Hops would have been dried on the second-floor level before being moved to the attached side barn for pressing. Otsego County was part of the central New York region where hops, used in flavoring beers and ales, were grown and processed. (Photograph by Cynthia Falk, July 2010.)

Studying the variations in farm buildings across New York shows just how diverse the state is in terms of climate, soil types, and topography, and therefore agricultural production. The Empire State stretches from Lake Erie in the west to Long Island in the east (Figure P.3). It includes rich valleys along the Hudson, Mohawk, and Genesee rivers; coastal regions that border the Atlantic Ocean; inland lakes in the center of the state; and mountainous areas in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and northern Alleghenies. The geography and climate of the various regions has created a historical connection between specific crops and specific places: grapes grow just east of Lake Erie, orchard crops to the south of Lake Ontario, vegetables, especially potatoes, on Long Island, and grains in the river valleys. Dairying, though common throughout the state, has been especially concentrated in central New York. While there is much overlap between the various agricultural regions within the state, there is enough variation to warrant special attention. Throughout the text and in the figure captions, trends and building types are often described by region, county, or even town to provide a clear understanding of local characteristics and agricultural practices.

Figure P.3. Map of New York State, 1921. The names of counties, cities, and waterways are referred to throughout this book to provide a clear sense of the regional nature of New York State agriculture. (Map reproduced from Elmer O. Fippin, Rural New York, Rural State and Province Series [New York: Macmillan, 1921], fig. 33.)

While in this book I focus on common farm buildings, barns in New York are anything but ordinary. Individual farmers and builders crafted buildings that served their own unique situations and experiences. One inventive New York horticulturalist named Peter Henderson wrote to an agricultural magazine about a dual-purpose storage cellar–greenhouse built over a seven-foot-deep foundation intended for another building but left abandoned (Figure P.4). He explained, Although I have never seen such a combination since, I am satisfied that in favorable circumstances such a structure might be made of great advantage and at trifling cost. The cellar temperature stayed cool but above freezing and therefore was ideal for cold storage; it also provided a more suitable base for the greenhouse than the frozen ground.⁵ While not found on the average New York farm, such a building typifies the search for practical, yet in some cases very imaginative, building solutions.

Figure P.4. Peter Henderson, Combined Cellar and Greenhouse, American Agriculturalist 33, no. 4 (April 1874): 141.

While we often think about farming as a traditional pursuit, its practice has been much more dynamic than static, even in the distant past. In 1852, for example, the agricultural journal Moore’s Rural New-Yorker was advocating for major changes in the way farmers dealt with animals and animal waste. A columnist in Moore’s remarked, A new idea has dawned upon the owner of the farm and a new history opens upon those starved and plundered lands. The new idea, the construction of a cellar to store manure, was evidenced by a new type of building. Moore’s editors, recognizing the link between architectural expression and changing practice, reported that in this case, as in many others, the old barn stands hard by, a decayed relic of the past, a monument to the old style of farming.⁶

The 1852 article recognizes what may have been the most abrupt in a series of changes in farming and farm building. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, immigrants and new Americans generally built upon agricultural practices developed in other places to make their way in what is now New York. They often found that they had to adapt to their new environment, and sometimes they borrowed from their neighbors. As a result, both the way they farmed and the buildings they built to facilitate farming balanced continuity with slow change. By the mid-nineteenth century, transformations occurred at a more rapid pace. New ideas, often published in print sources like Moore’s, circulated among more people more quickly, and new technology both allowed and demanded new solutions to old problems.

The story of agriculture in New York after the 1840s is one of constant alteration and adjustment. While farming is often viewed nostalgically as an age-old practice, new means of transportation, new ideas about sanitation, new equipment for performing routine tasks, and new construction materials have changed the way New Yorkers farmed and how they constructed the farm landscape. One of the chief developments of the mid- to late nineteenth century was the increased segregation of farm tasks. On the farm itself, an increasing array of structures replaced or supplemented multiuse buildings; even within the large main barn, tasks became compartmentalized as distinct spaces were defined for different kinds of animals and crops. At the same time, some work formerly done on the farm, such as making butter or cheese, moved away from the farmstead to rural factories. As these trends continued in the early decades of the twentieth century, new building materials also influenced the construction and appearance of farm buildings, as concrete, laminated beams and trusses, and mass-distributed building plans brought increasing standardization.

Farm building in New York generally slowed during the Great Depression and Second World War. When it resumed in the postwar period, new developments again transformed the farm landscape. Economies of scale and increasing automation became important in an era that valued modernization and increased production and consumption. Traditional buildings and approaches never disappeared, but for many farmers, new, modern methods brought about a period of rapid change much like that one hundred years earlier. When Douglas Harper spoke with farmers in New York’s north country in the late 1980s, he found a divide between what he termed craft and factory farms, the latter larger in size and scale with more advanced production technologies and greater division of labor.⁷ His conclusions are supported by statistics. Between 1959 and 2007, the total number of farms in New York had dropped from over 82,000 to about 36,000, while average farm size had grown slightly, and the disparity in sales values between the most and least prosperous New York farms had increased exponentially.⁸ As in the past, these trends are made manifest in the landscape.

People appreciate barns, particularly older barns, for a variety of reasons. Not the least of these is their endangered status. As New York’s economy has become less agriculturally based, and as individual family farms have become more mechanized and, in some cases, even bought up by large agribusinesses, buildings that were once of fundamental importance have become more rare. Many barns and other agricultural buildings have been lost because they were no longer integral to the day-to-day operations of a working farm (Figure P.5). Indeed, while old barns are often seen as picturesque elements of bucolic landscapes, their maintenance and adaptation to new uses are an expensive proposition for barn owners. Barns can be attractive aesthetic resources, and important reminders of New York State’s rich agricultural legacy, but the best avenue for preservation is continued serviceability.

Figure P.5. Barns of C. E. Colburn, 1901, Portlandville area, Otsego County. When built, the barn at Hillside Stock Farm cost about $6,000 and was touted as handy, comfortable, and up-to-date. Today, high maintenance costs and lack of use have jeopardized the integrity of the structure. (Photograph by Cynthia Falk, January 2010.)

For this reason, several organizations have promoted the preservation and adaptive reuse of agricultural buildings. In 1987 the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Successful Farming magazine began working in partnership on BARN AGAIN!, a program that provided workshops, referrals, and publications for the owners of historic barns. BARN AGAIN! also presented awards for successful barn rehabilitation projects.⁹ In New York, nonprofit groups like the New York State Barn Coalition and the Dutch Barn Preservation Society continue to work to ensure that historic agricultural buildings are appreciated, preserved, and documented. Museums and historic sites such as The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown provide the general public with the opportunity to experience old barns firsthand. The goal of all these organizations is to ensure the economic and cultural relevance of the agricultural buildings that are part of New York State’s cultural heritage.

For farmers who are the stewards of historic barns, the most useful programs are those that provide grants or tax credits to keep older farm buildings well maintained and in use. Beginning in 2001, state-funded New York State Barn Restoration and Preservation Grants provided money for barn rehabilitation projects. During the first grant cycle alone, over 4,800 barn owners applied, and awards totaling $2 million were made for 113 projects in forty-eight New York counties.¹⁰ At this writing the state offers financial assistance to historic barn owners through tax credits rather than competitive grants. A state income tax credit calculated as a percentage of the total cost for a rehabilitation project is available for barns built before 1936, provided the project does not alter the historic appearance of the building, and it is not converted to residential use.¹¹ The owners of barns listed on or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places may additionally benefit from a federal income tax credit. Local municipalities and school districts can opt to phase in assessment increases on restored barns and other buildings.

My goal in writing this book is to encourage the appreciation and therefore preservation of New York’s rich agricultural and architectural legacy through an increased awareness of the buildings on farms throughout the state. By writing about barns, I hope to promote further study and action. Visiting and experiencing barns in person is the best way to understand how they were built and how they function. Some organizations provide tours of working farms, often offered seasonally and geared toward particular products or industries such as maple syrup or dairying. Readers are encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities to learn how farms and farm buildings work today.

An appendix at the conclusion of this book provides a list of museums and historic sites throughout New York State that include agricultural buildings in their interpretation. These sites offer a different experience than do working farms. Their task is to use the built environment to provide a tangible connection to the past, to the experience of a specific person, location, or era. They help inform visitors about how things used to be, why barns were originally built, and what they can tell us about the people who made and used them. While many museums create a sense of nostalgia for a simpler era, often before the mechanization and automation we know today, in the best cases they connect farming in earlier eras with what we experience in the present. In an age when most people buy their food and clothes at the store, without a thought as to how they got there, an understanding of agricultural processes makes for better-informed consumers and citizens.

New York’s rural landscape deserves attention just like its other architectural landmarks. I urge my readers to visit, and better yet support, a historical society, living history museum, or historic site that preserves and interprets New York State’s agricultural heritage. Advocate for the preservation and adaptive reuse of old barns and farm buildings through programs that help fund maintenance, repair, and conversion to new farm uses.

Perhaps most important, we should all support local farmers. Historic barns are important cultural and aesthetic resources, but they are also important agricultural resources. As this book explains, farmers created barns to serve vital, often specialized functions on the farm. Currently more than seventeen thousand New York farms include at least one barn constructed prior to 1960.¹² These farm buildings and the rural landscapes of which they are part will endure as a legacy to the state’s rich agricultural heritage by remaining part of thriving working farms where they are put to good use.

This book combines text and illustrations to help the reader connect the history of agriculture in New York with the rural landscape. It begins with an introduction about the physical characteristics of barns—the materials that are used to build them and the embellishments that make them distinctive. The remaining chapters are organized according to building type, defined primarily according to function. Chapter 1 opens with what is traditionally termed the barn, typically a large multifunction building that is geared toward storing grain and hay, as well as housing animals, especially dairy cows. Later chapters cover more specialized buildings. Chapter 2 focuses on barns for sheltering animals, such as horse stables, pigpens, and chicken coops. Buildings associated with the storage and processing of field crops, including cereals such as wheat and corn as well as grasses such as hay, are the subject of chapter 3. Farmers who raise specialty crops—from apples to potatoes to honey—often require specialized buildings and structures, and these are detailed in chapter 4. Chapter 5 focuses on elements of the built environment, such as engine houses, which help ensure that farmers have ready access to power and water. Each chapter addresses the issue of change over time but also looks at regional variations and differences based on scale of production. Special emphasis is placed on distinct farm products associated with New York State such as hops, apples, cheese, and maple syrup (Figure P.6).

Figure P.6. Cider Mill, by William Carlton (1816–1888), oil on canvas, 29 x 36 x 1 3/4". Many distinctive New York agricultural products, such as apples, require specialized spaces and equipment to be stored or processed. Here apples are made into cider at a cider mill. (Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N0427.1955. Photograph by Richard Walker.)

Although this book is organized to highlight individual buildings, it is important to remember that all of the structures found on a farm are part of a larger farm complex (Figure P.7). The constellation of buildings on a farmstead usually includes a residence for the family and sometimes other housing for tenants or seasonal laborers, in addition to buildings more clearly associated with agricultural work. While I do not discuss farmhouses and other domestically oriented buildings in detail, these structures were and are important components of the farm environment, as they sheltered and served the people who provided farm labor on a daily basis.

Figure P.7. Walt Mead farmstead, Town of Roxbury, Delaware County. Produced in 1974, this site plan includes the locations of the farmhouse, woodshed, garden, chicken coop, garage-workshop, dairy barn, horse barn, calf barn, milk house, and maple sugarbush, as well as the former sites of the outhouse, icehouse, and pigpen. The relationship of the buildings and landscape features to one another and to the road suggests the movement of people, animals, and equipment from one location to another over time. (Drawing by Donna Rae Gordon, Archive of New York State Folklife, New York Historical Association Research Library, Cooperstown, 74–0200.)

The location of buildings within the farm complex provides important information about work routines and patterns of living on the farm. Privies and woodsheds were located near the farmhouse for obvious reasons, but the reason for erecting chicken coops near the residence may be less clear until it is understood that it was farmwives and children who historically oversaw the poultry flock. Milk houses, often added to a farm complex after its initial development, were built separately from but often connected to the dairy barn to enable the separation of animals and milk products while at the same time maintaining proximity so milk did not have to be hauled a long distance. In the age of bulk tanks and off-site processing, milk houses, like garages and farm stands, also had to be oriented toward the road.

To the greatest extent possible, my interpretation is based on observation of actual farmsteads throughout New York State. Given the geographic scope of the state, however, there are biases. The Historic American Buildings Survey, New York State Register of Historic Places, Farm