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