by JOANNE SPAHR WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Hie Chester County coun tryside is a scenic won derland engulfed in history. Beautifully preserved and restored stone bams dot the gently rolling hillsides and elegant horsemen in their traditional liveries chase the proverbial fox over hill and dale, creating a languid atmosphere seemingly right This great stone barn has been pearance of the barns back in the preserved and refurbished. The 1800’s when farmers were kings in sleek, white conical supports under the county, the forebay are typical of the ap- Great stone barns of Chester Cavity out of a Currier and Ives print. For a visitor more con cerned with bam structures than with quaint, pic turesque scenes, one type of Chester County bam would be of interest. Known as a “double decker,” this three story structure is set up in a practical fashion. “Banked a-hill with stone to weather”, or constructed with the north side of the bam built into a protecting hillside, the barnyards in these buildings are south oriented for maximum use of the sun, and with the stone materials holding in the warmth, are maximizers of solar energy. In a double-decker, a ramp leads to the bamfloor, or top floor in the building. This top level is raised from six to ten feet above the ceiling of the stable, which is on the ground level. Sandwiched in between the. stables and the bam floor, is a granary, and on either side of the centrally located grain bins are hay mows.l3hese mows begin at the ceiling of the stables and reach to the bam roof. This type of construction was of great convenience for the farmers of 1800’s because they could pull their wagons to the top floor, thresh their wheat, and let gravity do,the rest of the work. After the wheat was threshed, the grain fell into the granary through slits in the bam floor, and the straw was easily thrown into the straw mows at the front of the bam. About the time of the Civil War, the threshing machine was invented and more wheat was produced. When this happened, the fanners needed more room to store the straw, and the ar chitecture of the barns changed. Those who had a bam horn a Civil War era just built wide wooden forebays over the barnyard to serve as straw sheds. They then knocked an ar chway through the stone -walls and blew their excess straw into the newly added areas. These forebays ex tended as much as 20 feet, One unique barn in the county has a ramp leading to the top floors, but entering from a different side than usual. and the' bam foundation could not support the ad ditional weight, so supports were developed The style of the supports which the Chester Countians adopted has become typical of the bams in the county. The shape of the supports was conical, and they were made from waste stones hedl in place with mortor. The entire column was also plastered smooth ’ and whitewashed. Many of • these conical" shaped supports can be found in Chester County ,< today, as well as a few, full round pillars. The full-round supports lack the lightness and grace of the tapered columns. Grace was also added to the bams through the use (jf archways between the stables as portals. The materials used to construct the double deckers also was an asset to the beauty. One particularly loveiv type of stone was serpentina, someth stone.” in depc world, , countrie sort of U v • # Add! archwj acting under the ha
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