I Document A Disappearing Icon Of Rural New England

I photograph a disappearing icon of rural Vermont and New Hampshire, classic historic barns, built by hand up to one hundred years ago.

Barns on farms are build for a purpose of course. They protect livestock and farming equipment from the elements. They store hay and food for animals and provide a place for milking cows and sheltering horses. But their beauty provides a scenic element in the rural landscape for visitors.

Post and beam wooden barns build in the 18th and 19th century across America were built with pride and purpose. Unlike their modern replacements, the ugly metal hoop and plastic temporary structures or metal siding warehouse type buildings, these older barns were built with the idea the barn was the families stake in the land for generations.

These old barns were not built with Home Depot supplies or heavy equipment. They were built with hand hewn timbers squared by hand with a broad ax. They’re put together by mortise-and-tenon joints, secured with long wooden pegs and braced near their tops by smaller diagonal members.

These old barn often stand for hundreds of years with little upkeep, minimal maintenance or even a fresh coat of paint. When they begin slowly fail they often can take thirty years or more to lean over yet still stand.

Unfortunately the cost of repair of these magnificent old structures is beyond the financial resources of the struggling family farmer. They are left as they are slowly decaying. Eventually they collapse or are sold to a barn restoration company where they sometimes taken apart piece by piece, inventoried and sold to a rich Wyoming, gentleman rancher or sold as weather barn wood for artwork frame makers or high end floor boards.

It is said that each week in Vermont another classic old barn collapses so by documenting the barns in my area I’m preserving these beautiful old structures for the future.

More info: edwardfielding.com