Name

Dutch Gable Entry Barns

General Range

1810-1870

A common 19th century barn type was the Dutch or gable entry bank barn. In the book The Barn: A Vanishing Landmark in North America, the authors Eric Arthur and Dudley Witney devote an entire chapter to the front end gabled barns that were brought to North America by settlers from Holland. These Dutch barns featured a center threshing floor running longitudinally through the building with large doors centered on each gable end. Stalls were located along the sides of the barn on a slightly lower plane than the threshing floor. The earliest Dutch barns had a square footprint, a steeply pitched, gabled roof, and multiple doors on the main gable end. Arthur and Witney report that Dutch barns constructed in the 19th century are easily identifiable because of innovations that created sub-classes of the Dutch barn. Among these subsets are the two-level barn with hay and grain storage on the upper level and stalls on the lower (stall) level; barn shown here (9781 Peach Street, Summit Township) appears to be an example of this sub-type. Other subtypes include multi-level barns in which the lowest level was devoted to the storing of bovine droppings in various stages of composting for use on the fields the following year.

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Municipality

Address

Conneaut Township

8650 LEXINGTON RD

Conneaut Township

9135 BISCOFF RD

City of Corry

720 MARION ST

Washington Township

HAMILTON RD