Hi All;

Don, I would like to see your photos. The photo Jim R. posted is what I expected to see. I have been thinking these were a later style, not necessarily imported from England. I have a 38x50 barn like this in storage which was built using parts of an older barn near Farmington, ME. I do not think it is an unusual style. They are gable entry barns, correct?

Ken, I agree circular sawn materials indicate a later date. Here in Waldoboro I am trying to narrow down the date of circular sawn material by finding buildings of known dates and looking at there materials. Near as I can tell cercular saws were first used for smaller materials like lath and edging boards and planks starting in the early 1870s. Timbers sawn on a circular saw here start appearing in the 1880s. Another example of when a particular technology was introduced in Waldoboro is that hand made nails were still being used in 1814. Most experts will tell you that a building which has hand made nails is 18th century...not necessarily.

I have not been in nearly as many barns as I would like, but what I have seen is a wide variation in framing styles in Maine; some of which I believe have not been given names or been recorded. In comparison to natural history where you have to dive in a cave to discover new species, unrecorded framing joints and framing typologies are in our own back yards. The field of historic carpentryology is still quite young!

Don, one of my goals in life is to identify historic framing styles and there distribution throughout Maine...Let's talk.

Jim Derby, barnologist