Hi DLB,
I just received the following (edited) note from Bill Krattinger who is an architectural historian and preservationist interested in the early architecture of Washington County, NY, which he informs me was settled in the pre-1800 period by significant numbers of Scots and Scots-Irish, some of whom came directly from Europe, others after a generation or so in New York's Hudson Valley and the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts.
"A number of us have been studying early English barns of this region, where the term "Scottish barn" crops up semi-regularly, we suspect due to the influence of Richard Babcock, whom it seems enjoyed placing ethnic qualifiers on barns that he was engaged to work upon. The barn was cited by Babcock as a "Scottish" barn in his "Barns of Wolftrap" pamphlet, where he suggests that this was built by Scots builders, is a 4-bent English barn employing all dropped tie beams -- the earliest barns that we have yet encountered in this region, some of which were built for early Scottish settlers, either using English tying joints or a similar tie-at-plate solution for the end bents, with dropped tie beams for the interior/aisle bents. While we remain alert to learn about features or methods of construction which might have Old World precedents, we have continued to view these as English barns built for Scottish settlers, and not Scottish barns."
I think that this clears up the attribution issue.
Anyone requiring sight of the Wolftrap pamphlet (6mb) please drop me a PM.
Regards
Ken Hume
