I wonder when it was when barns changed from beams and joinery to this style of stick framing. Could it have had to do with the popping up of local saw mills providing sawn lumber which made it easier for the average farmer to build his own barn?
As much as I thought this was a well built barn, I still prefere the Traditional Timber framed, M&T,w/pegs method.
Nice thread. Glad to offer up whatever I can on this topic gleaned from experience examining these buildings here in northern New England.
Like many aspects of timber framing, questions on barns and how they were built is typically based on regional characteristics. The 21st Century is a much more homogenized world. Asking when barns changed from beams an joinery to planks/studs will produce different answers depending on geography and the cultural influences of those in given areas.
They say New England held on to the heavy-timber style methods of building longer than most areas of the US for a couple of reasons: wide availability of long, large diameter stock (that many folks already had growing right on their properties), and a reluctance to embrace "new-fangled" technology.
A quote from “Facts for Farmers,” 1868 reads:
Necessity has done much for the building public by introducing to their favorable notice the balloon style of framing—a style which is not well understood in the old-settled and well-timbered portions of our country I assume this gambrel is in Ontario where you're located. Not sure how old the settlements and culture date in that region, or the amount of forest cover both past and present.
It stands to reason that Housewright’s awesome definition (nice piece of work Jim!) of “plank frame” references its Midwest origins—a place historically devoid of plentiful building stock and lacking the culture and history of New England’s “old world” connections where TF was born.
Of course 19th Century industrial technology permeated carpentry like many other trades. Sawing lumber into “planks” made for more efficient “standardized material,” (interchangeable parts) as did the mass production of the wire nail that held the planks together.
Important historical events like the Chicago Fire influenced the rise of stud framing as well. The city needed new buildings very quickly following the blaze. Think of a modern day post-hurricane New Orleans. Unskilled laborers (rather than old-time joiners) were put to use w/ hammers, not mallets and chisels, etc.
TF is full of history and culture, which is why I find barns so interesting. TF terminology and technique always seem to trace back to the greater culture and practices of a particular location and demographic.
Ontario has its own history, something I know very little about. The forum is a great way to connect w/ others…all our TF history can be compared and documented.
I’ve not seen a barn like that gambrel here, but they likely exist. In Maine, the gambrel became popular around 1910-1940ish. The gambrels I have seen are chock-full of studding and sawn, common rafter stock, but they still have posts and “bent” configurations, more or less. Instead of pegged frames the M&T joints are fashioned w/ nails.
I, too, am disappointed visiting a barn expecting to find neat old joinery then only to discover it’s pretty modern. In my experience, gambrels here aren’t old enough to have hand-hewn frames.
