Have to dissent on the plausibility of that first barn being SR’d – There was but the one housing in the frame. I’ve seen this on occasion before – one odd housing – it may have been a way of dealing with tearout or wane – in scribe you’re are free to deal little problems in a variety of ways - - I’ve sometimes wondered if these out of place housings might not have been the genesis, the idea, that spawned SR, a little seemingly mundane action, that simply got some clever carpenter thinking.
And there were marks identifying address, not the typical chiseled numbers (nor marriage marks, which bridge joinery and mark both pieces at once, something I’ve seen but a handful of times) but cursive handwriting in pencil. Which stands to reason with the pencil layout.
I don’t see it (pencil) much in frames that early, but the first domestic production of pencils began in 1812 in Concord Mass, in response to the English blockade, replacing a void in the market and an obviously preexisting demand – So it does fit the construction date.
The out of the ordinarily large village barn fits the owners pattern, a well appointed large brick house, he was making a statement and probably expecting, he was leaving a legacy.
I for one, think he did both and more, and am glad of it !
Will:
Looks like the jury has spoken. It's a Square Rl'd barn.
And neat to hear your hypothesis on these odd housings... how they may have spawned Square Rule. Sounds perfectly plausible.
I was looking online at the Sobon joinery booklet that Jim Derby had copies of at the tour.
And I couldn't help notice the purposley housed mortises on the posts in some of the diagrams... I know these were in use long before square rule, but they share an interesting commonality.
That odd housing in the first barn was on a post in much the same configuration as a mortise w/ a "diminished shoulder," as Sobon describes.
My point being that perhaps these housings grew out of shouldered mortises?
