I am wondering if those that built barns in the old days were known as barnwrights or were they also the same framers who built houses and were thus known as housewrights. I have seen many references to the term housewright and millwright but not much of barnwrights? Does anyone have information on this. Always curious tb
TB,
Not to confuse just to muddle the water a little.
There were a number of wandering (today we would call the itinerants or sumpin like that) shipwrights in the period right after the revolution thru the civil war era. These shipwrights built timberframe houses, barns, bridges and sometimes included some very intricate carved mouldings and other interior trim on the bookshelves and such they also built. My ancestral home in the finger lake region of NYS was built by some of these shipwrights btwn 1804-1811. They left New England shipyards for lack of work. In our case they even walked the forest to hand pick the big oaks they felled for primary timbers. Much of the house frame is 16x16 or 12x12 up to 64' long. All hand hewn naturally after they sledged the logs to town with horses. Most of the finished lumber they used was cut in a variation of the pit saw. All manpowered.
Now I wonder what they called the guy with the shovel behind the horses ??
Deralte