as a further measure against drafts. Rooms within early houses tended to be smaller than the rooms we live in today. Low ceilings helped to keep rooms warm by reducing the volume of air. While New England’s homes were certainly quite cold by modern standards, fireplaces and eventually more efficient woodstoves kept the family moderately comfortable by burning first wood and, later on, coal.
Unlike domestic structures, barns had no requirements for uniform floor levels between sections. They could be at one height or any other — practicality determined the particulars for each working level. In early barn layout and construction, form strictly followed function in an attempt to make the work within the barn’s walls as efficient as possible. The needs of the farm and the farmer took precedence over other considerations. Because everything today is strictly ordered and governed by building codes, floor levels in old barns often seem randomly placed to our modern eyes. We do not expect to bang our heads on timbers or fall through openings as we walk through a building. In a working barn, however, modern safety regulations would have been a hindrance and dramatically reduced efficiency. A particular farmer might have specified a height to the mow, or hayloft, because he knew how high he swung his pitchfork from the ground or from atop his wagon.
The requirements were different for the ends of the barn, in which the animals were housed. The second floor height might start slightly above the maximum height of the animal intended to live there. The flooring above an oxen stall, for example, would be higher than the flooring above the sheep. Keeping floor heights at a minimum above stalls not only made better use of the available space but also added the benefit of keeping the animals warmer in winter. To decide arbitrarily that the second floor should always start, say, at eight feet would waste valuable barn space. When one’s survival is at stake, decisions are generally made for very practical reasons.
Floor heights often vary in older barns.
In addition to varying floor heights, irregular construction is also seen in barn lofts, which did not need to be built as permanent structures. Unlike the second floor of the home in which the family lived and worked, where solid footing underneath was essential, barns were built with flexibility in mind. Many farmers used temporary flooring to store summer harvests. Rather than framing the lofts with full floor joists and covering them with solid decking to make a loft floor, they often employed poles made from saplings to span the distance between girts (supports that run horizontally from post to post). Enough loose boards were placed across this quick joist system to allow farmers to load the ever-rising pile of hay. Less expensive to build, this system allowed for better crop ventilation and added flexibility should the volume of any particular crop vary — although the arrangement certainly made working on top of them all the more interesting. Temporary floors were simply placed where desired and as necessity dictated. Additionally, this loose arrangement allowed farmers to take full advantage of the volume of dry space available. If you imagine trying to pitch loose hay into a room with a fixed ceiling, it isn’t hard to see that the ceiling will quickly get in the way of the work. If, however, you pitch the hay as high as you can and then put the ceiling into place, the work becomes much easier. Much later, farmers invented an overhead trolley system running the length of the barn. A large pair of tongs, or horse forks as they were called, hung from this trolley by block and tackle. The forks could be lowered to pick up huge loads of loose hay from a wagon, then raised to any level and dumped onto mows where desired. Here again, having an open structure was essential. Even later, some farmers built barns into hillsides, which allowed them to drive their wagons in near the top of the barn. They simply tossed the hay downward to fill the mow, eliminating much of the physical effort. With the invention, well into the twentieth century, of hay balers priced for the small farm, permanent floors were often added to older barns or built into new structures, since uniformly shaped bales ended the need for open lofts.
Materials Used to Construct Timber-Framed Barns
The earliest barns were, by necessity, constructed of timbers hewn entirely by hand. In fact, hewn timbers would remain the standard well into the 1800s, depending upon location. Even as water-powered saw mills began to dot the landscape, the frame’s heavy timber was generally hewn into rectangular form by hand — for both economic and logistical reasons. It took simply too much effort to transport heavy logs to distant mills for the four cuts needed to transform them into rectangular forms, before then shipping them back to the building site. Given the weights involved, and the need to move logs with animal power over primitive roads, hewing a timber on the spot and moving it just once to the building’s location saved labor overall. This would remain the case until the advent of balloon construction, in which buildings were made entirely of sawn timber. As one might expect, sawn timber began to make its way into timber-framed barns as saw mills opened throughout New England. Smaller timbers used in the frame, such as wind braces, joists, and eventually common rafters, were the first to replace pieces once hewn. Despite the spread of mills, carpenters preferred to use hewn timbers right into the late nineteenth century.
Until water-powered saw mills could be built locally, planking used for siding, flooring, or as roofers on the barn was ripped by hand. These boards were sawn from logs by what were known as pit saws. Logs were placed on scaffolding, or above a pit dug into the earth. This setup allowed sawyers to use a long, two-handled saw. A person standing on top of the log would both guide the saw blade and pull up, while the person below pulled the blade back down. Together, they ripped the log into planks. As can be imagined, this was a long and laborious task, and another reason why flooring was not used unless entirely necessary. Although water-powered mills with gangs of saw blades eventually took this job out of the pit, planks nevertheless continued to represent a serious financial investment.
The construction of saw mills was an important advancement for any village, as it allowed for the provision of the most essential raw material of the time: lumber. These mills were, of course, more likely to be built along the coast, with its greater population and ready access to materials from abroad.
Using a pit saw. Bruegel, Prudentia, 1559.
While the milling of lumber represented a significant expense, the raw materials were quite common, and thus relatively inexpensive. For early settlers in Connecticut and throughout New England, trees were plentiful. Additionally, wood is one of our most versatile materials. It can be used in countless ways. Beyond the construction of barns and homes, wood appeared in nearly every aspect of a settler’s life: furniture, bridges, wagons, ships, barrels, fences, tools, and, later, at least in myth, even George Washington’s teeth.
As a construction material, wood in early New England had no equal. In fact, wood remained the most important building material in this country until the widespread use of materials such as steel, aluminum, and concrete in the twentieth century. The differing properties of wood from various tree species were put to use in numberless ways. Oaks, being dense and strong, were used to build timber-framed houses, barns, bridges, ships, and equipment that underwent hard use. The conifers found in New England provided a relatively lightweight material once dried — a material that also maintains a high strength to weight ratio. Conifers offered settlers wood that could be used in furniture, flooring, siding, masts, and any number of smaller objects. Effortlessly sawn, quick to season, and easily worked with hand tools, softwoods were also milled into lumber used to make doors, windows, clapboards, and trim. Highly rot resistant black locust was useful for fence posts, and its high tensile strength lent itself well for use in trunnels, the wooden pegs used to fasten timbers together. White cedar, because it is easily worked, weathers well, and swells quickly when dampened, made the best shingles for roofing and siding. Ash and hickory were used as tool handles or in the making of the tool itself. Settlers heated their homes with wood, cooked their food above it, and transported their goods in it. Despite today’s variety and availability of materials, we still largely depend on wood for many of the same things. Steel and aluminum
