Hello everyone tonight:
Well thanks Daiku for the remarks, I have visited Black Creek village once on a fall trip with staff from UCV and walked the halls of this great barn. What a wonderful structure indeed.
The date though of 1808 is not in my opinion in line with some of the older structures in this area which was setted around 1784 by UEL's from New York state.
Some of the structures from this time frame were moved to UCV during the uprooting of the early settlements along the St.Lawrence River just prior to the flooding to create the Seaway in June of 1961.
It is very hard indeed to put an exact date on the construction of a building, in order to prove its age as most of you probably understand. I have done my share of proving the ages of particular structures because the mandate that I worked under stated that I had to prove within a reasonable doubt the age of any structure that I put forward as one that would fit into the group of building that comprised those already in existance on the UCV site.
In the case of the above barn I suspect that there is written family documentation that backs up the 1808 construction date, something that is very hard to come by indeed but they must have in that case.
The earliest census records only date back to 1867 in this area before that you have to rely on other criteria such as construction details, nails, axe marks, shingles, saw marks (maybe whip sawn) this would really be prior to saw mills in the area and a real plus for dating!
At times the original deeds as they passed from hand to hand might have details that would suggest if such a building had yet appeared on that particular parcel of land.
Proving a date of a particulr structure is very interesting and one that I do miss with enthusiasm but remember with fond memories.
One thing for certain I can honestly say is that any one of the many structures that I reconstructed for UCV over my tenure there had to pass a very rigid scrutiny before it was considered for a permanent home there.
So having said that I would say that the barn above probably in one of the oldest in ontario, but probably not in Canada because Quebec was far older and settled earlier than this area. Dates back to 1600 is possible and even older in some regions of Quebec. You just have to enter old Quebec city and you will see examples of very old structures
I hope that I have helped this thread along
NH
