Barns of Tompkins County Preview

During the late 1800s, Morrow Creek Farm was known as the Dates Farm. The original barn burned and was rebuilt on the same site in 1898. The barn is an example of a late nineteenth century trussed barn which was framed using square-rule framing methods. A hay track runs under the roof peak and a granary is located in the southwest corner. The basement was converted for dairy use with the addition of stanchions and floor gutters. The barn was extensively repaired in 1996.

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This property was historically known as Healing Springs Farm. The main barn is a Pennsylvania Dutch-style threshing barn built ca.1820-30, a rare example of this style barn in Tompkins County. The barn has original swinging doors and hardware and has not been substantially modified. The timber framing shows evidence of being scribe-ruled. The addition to the south of the barn was built as a dairy. In addition to the threshing barn, the farmstead includes a utility barn, chicken house, springhouse, carriage house, and outhouse.

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The Towner (formerly Tarbell) barn is part of a 200-acre farm and is believed to have been on the same route of the Underground Railroad used by Harriet Tubman. It has been in the family for seven generations. This barn was originally used for housing livestock (horses, sheep, and cows). The remainder of the first floor was used to store potatoes and other crops, a portion of which was supplied to the Auburn Correctional Facility to feed inmates. The second floor was used primarily to store hay. A hay track, a mechanism that was used ubiquitously after the Civil War, is still hanging in the interior.

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In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, this 30' x 40' post-and-beam barn was constructed from local timbers. The barn had been expanded over the years to meet changing agricultural needs. When the Hornbuckles acquired the property in 1980, the building was in serious disrepair. Rather than tear it down, the owners chose to restore it in 1991 to resemble its original appearance.

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Five outbuildings of varying size, age, and use are located on the property. The large central barn has a hay track on the second floor. The smaller structure may have once been used for grain storage, as its east wall is constructed with gaps between each horizontal plank, which allows circulating air to dry the grain. The barn parallel to the road was historically used to stable horses. The north addition to this barn may have been altered or added ca. 1913--the note "J. Smith June 9, 1913" is inscribed in the poured concrete floor.

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This distinctive three-bay barn was known historically as the "Steep Gable" barn due to the steep pitch of the roof and the central cross gable on the south side of the roof. The north side of the roof does not have a corresponding cross gable. The original barn dates from 1853 (which we know from the cornerstone), but additions have been made over time. The basement was originally divided into several horse and cow stalls and is now used for dairy operations. The interior also includes grain and hay chutes as well as ladders integrated with the framing timbers, which is a common feature in timber-framed barns.

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The Bruno barn is unique among Tompkins County's barns. This 100' x 40', six-bay basement barn was built in 1908 for W.B. McClintock. It was the first steel-frame barn built in Tompkins County by the Groton Bridge Company. The steel frame and central interior steel loft space allowed the barn to have a massive 40' high open space for loose hay storage. Other interesting, and increasingly rare features of this barn, are the slate roof and metal ventilators.

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The Maynard family purchased this property, known as the Legg Homestead, in 1959. The house is the oldest house in the hamlet of Speedsville and once served as a stagecoach stop with a dance hall on the second floor. The barn was formerly used for milk cows. The Maynard farm also had two tall wood silos, which are common in this part of New York State, and a tool shed that was formerly a one-room schoolhouse moved from nearby Ekroos Road.

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This farm has been in the Maynard family since 1907. The group of farm buildings along the roadside illustrates the gradual modernization, alteration, and growth of the farm over time. The oldest barn, built ca.1900, has a 1950 dairy addition on its south facade. A sheep barn connected to the dairy addition was built before the dairy but after the main barn. Additional farm structures south of the main barn are indicative of the types of farm buildings commonly built after 1950. The Maynards raised dairy cattle as well as producing corn, oats, and hay.

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This farm has been in the Crispell family since the 1840s, but the date of original barn's construction is unknown. The barn is composed of multiple additions, expanding over time to accommodate a 200-cow dairy farm. The barn was repaired in 2008 to allow for use as hay storage.

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Matthew Mix operates one of the few remaining Caroline dairy farms. In the 1940s, Mix's father, William, purchased the farm, which had been in active use since the early 1800s. Around the time of William's purchase, the Mix family added on to the existing barn to accommodate their 50-cow dairy. Mix and more than 30 other Caroline dairy farmers joined the Dairylea Cooperative in the 1940s, while other farmers in Caroline sent their milk to Crowley or the Four County Creamery in Harford.

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A wood-sided granary and stone smokehouse are located along the west side of Boiceville Road, south of Six Mile Creek. These structures are significant examples of the variety of small agricultural outbuildings that were common on many farmsteads throughout the county. These smaller types of structures are even more endangered than the larger barns with which they are associated.

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This barn is an example of how important location was to the farmer. Situated with easy access to Six Mile Creek (which runs just behind), the farmer would have had access to water and possibly, power. Its three-bay fieldstone foundation is banked on the south side and accommodated cows and horses. The innovation of keeping the animals in the basement level, with the threshing floor above, allowed the farmer to throw hay and grain from a trap door in the floor, thereby allowing greater storage of feed above. A historic marker on the adjacent lot indicates just how important this area has been in Brooktondale history; it states, "1st town meeting held here in Bush Tavern, made of hewn logs; April 1811."

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Please Note: if you're stopping to take a look at the Gibian house, it is safer to pull your car off on the east side of the road.

This gambrel-roof barn was converted by owner and architect Stephen Gibian in the 1980s. It was originally built during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and was used to house both dairy cows and plow horses. A note about gambrel roofs: after the Civil War, a mechanism called the hay track was invented. This was a track with a large claw that ran beneath the roof peak (along the ridge beam) and was operated by horse. The large claw was used to stack bales of hay--a time- and labor-saving device for farmers who had previously done the chore by hand. Because hay could be stacked much higher as a result of this device, the roof form was changed from gable to gambrel, which increased volume of barns by up to 50 percent.

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The original Four Winds Farm was a 500-acre property with two barns, two sheds, and a poultry house. A section of the main barn was originally constructed in the 1800s but was altered to its current configuration in the 1930s by Dr. Roydon Mandeville. Mandeville intended for the property to be a model farm; it included a main house, two tenant houses, a cemetery, hay barn, horse barn, dairy barn, chicken house, garage, and shed.

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This property was originally the Miller Farm, operated by the Miller brothers as a dairy during the first half of the twentieth century. The collection of farm buildings illustrates how the American farm swiftly transitioned from small-scale farming to high-volume production as technology changed. As operations grew, more outbuildings and additions were needed. When the main bank barn was constructed ca. 1920, it was stick-framed with locally sawn lumber and built on an older foundation. A typical corncrib is located to the east of the barn.

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This carriage house was rehabilatated in 2006 and is part of Three Swallows Farm. The 30' x 40' barn has a ca.1880 fieldstone foundation and is timber framed using square-rule framing methods. The foundation of a second barn remains to the east of the barn. Three Swallows Farm is home to the Youth Farm Project, an educational farm that provides sustainable agriculture and social justice education to youth from pre-K to high school. High school youth spend the summer working on the farm and become familiar with our regional and national food system as well as the discrepancies within them. Food grown on the farm is distributed throughout the county through a Harvest Box program, bringing produce to Titus Towers and the McGraw House, and through The Mobile Market, bringing fresh food to Pete's Gas Station and John's Convenience Store, both on a weekly schedule throughout the growing season. The Youth Farm Project also provides curriculum for regional public school field trips as well as the Ithaca Waldorf School, from whom the surrounding farm land is leased. The historic barn provides a unique educational space as well as work space for all ages. Learn more at www.youthfarmproject.org.

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The Roe barn is an example of the type of small farmstead that existed within the village of Danby during the 1800s. Oriented to the road, the five-bay bank barn may have been built ca. 1870 on the foundation of an earlier barn. The decorative Italianate-style cornice brackets are rarely seen on barns in Tompkins County. Stanchions for dairy cows were used in the basement, probably in the early 1900s, but the barn has not been in commercial agricultural use since the 1930s.

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The Tupper barn was built ca. 1890 as part of Theo Tupper's 100-acre farm. Note the large gambrel roof, a modification made to many American barns after the Civil War. This roof shape, as opposed to the gable roof, created a much larger volume, allowing for more hay storage. The primary uses of this barn were hay and machine storage on the first floor and animal stalls in the basement. Like many other early twentieth century Tompkins County farms, the Tupper Farm produced multiple farm products: milk, poultry, and wool.

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The most recent agricultural use of this barn was by former owner Eero Ruuspakka, who purchased it during World War II and operated the farm for over 60 years. When Ruuspakka began working the farm, it was an overgrown orchard. The 106-foot-long barn was built in stages; the north portion of the barn has hewn timbers, while the south portion has sawn timbers. The current roof configuration was constructed in the 1910s and is ten feet lower than the original roof. The Ruuspakka farm has been subdivided and sold as five-acre building lots.

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Barns are notoriously hard to research. While homes and businesses are documented fairly specifically in deeds, building permits, and miscellaneous ephemera, structures like barns and sheds have always been built, altered, and demolished more quietly. Some documentation on this barn has been found in the 1866 Stone & Stewart Atlas of Tompkins County. In 1866, this was listed as the E.A. Curtis Farm. It was located in an unnamed small hamlet between Newfield and Poney Hollow. Given the date and location, this probably served as part of a subsistence-level farm and was added to later to allow higher-volume production of goods like milk and wool.

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The Fir Farm barn was built by the Shaffer family ca. 1880. The foundation stone was quarried on the property. The barn was used for raising sheep as well as grain and hay storage. The Shaffers secured their draft horses to the metal tie rings in the foundation, which are still in use. From 1923 to 1991, the barn was owned by the Williams dairy across the road and used for hay and grain storage. Today, the barn stores equipment for the Fir Farm, which produces Christmas trees, ornamental trees, and shrubs.

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This barn, with its easily identifiable "7-UP" painting, is an example of how barns were commonly used for advertisements. This practice had a long history in the United States. The first such signs appeared on covered bridges. Barns became more popular as billboards during the railroad age because they could be seen easily from trains. In the age of auto-tourism, it came to symbolize the dominance of commercialism over traditional farm culture. However, the practice also reflected the versatility of barns. At this farm, known as Plenty of Posies, two early barns were combined on a new foundation ca. 1885. Their gable roofs were converted to a gambrel. The barn was adapted to a new use beginning in 1986 when two of the bays were converted to living space.

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This barn, associated with the Dane Emerson Bed & Breakfast on the same property, was built in 1906 by Frank Snyder. Snyder graduated from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering and served as an officer in the Coast Guard during the Spanish American War. He built it as a "show barn" to house horses and a small herd of cattle. This was essentially a gentleman's farm which kept him occupied after his retirement. Notice that the barn is built into a bank, which allowed carriages to access the first floor, while animals would access the stanchions in the basement directly from the meadow behind.

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Like several other agricultural buildings in the Newfield area, this barn was moved from Connecticut Hill ca. 1900. Connecticut Hill, with its rocky soil and exposed hilly terrain, made for poor farmland, and settlers continually abandoned the area prior to its purchase by the government during the Great Depression. The barn's original location and owner are unknown.

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The A.J. Teeter Farm was established in 1847 and is the oldest family farm in the Town of Ithaca. Alan and Debbie Teeter, along with their children are the 5th and 6th generations to farm this land. They manage the farm's 180 acres organically, growing hay on much of the acreage and raising grass-fed beef on the pasture land. This building is a carriage house. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, carriage houses, especially ones ornamented with a cupola, were a sign that the farmer had "made it." These were fairly ostentatious buildings (although they were still functional), and the cupola was claimed to provide ventilation for the benefit of the horses.

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One of the two barns on Steep Hollow Farm is a rare remaining example of a tobacco barn in the county. The four-bay barn was built by the Davis family ca. 1895, designed specifically for the drying and storage of tobacco. The sills were hemlock and the siding was white pine. Sections of the barn's siding are open, allowing air to flow through the barn. This farm once had a sawmill, flour mill, and cider press. The Davis family cemetery is also on the Steep Hollow Farm.

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This building is a carriage house, likely built in the late 1880s. During that time, carriage houses, especially ones ornamented with a cupola, were a sign that the farmer had "made it." These were fairly ostentatious buildings (although they were still functional), and the cupola was claimed to provide ventilation for the benefit of the horses. Also note the weather vane, the ornamental gingerbread in the gable peak, and the Gothic Revival-style windows; all very elaborate for an agricultural building. The cupola here was stabilized several years ago, as its weight was causing the roof to fail.

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How can you tell when a barn was built? Barn restorers Randy Nash and Rick Lazarus took a walk through this barn and made the following evaluation: It's a swing beam barn, but very large for this type. The rafters are commercially sawn, and the original hardware is commercially made (instead of hand-forged). The Gothic Revival-style window probably dates from alterations and expansion in the 1880s. It has a hay track installed at the ridge beam. This barn was most likely built in the late 1860s, just after the Civil War. This barn was part of the Strawberry Smith Farm, which continuously produced crops (including strawberries) through the 1970s.

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This barn has an unusual and fortunate asset: the diary from the original builder, Seymore Bates. By the mid-1800s his family had a large 200-acre farm. His diary reveals much about the construction of the barn, from gathering the timber himself. On January 29, 1872, his diary states: "Mercury zero, high winds, snow squalls, went after logs. Roads full of snow South of Steamburg and had to return home without a load." Once the lumber had cured, the structure was framed. The July 15, 1874 diary entry describes the barn raising: "Fully one hundred friends and neighbors helped raise the bents and get the plates up on the upper beams by 1 PM and the plates were put to their places after dinner which was on a table 60 feet long in the dooryard."

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This farmstead features a cluster of several agricultural buildings. The smallest, and perhaps most interesting is the corn crib. The corn crib is set upon large solid-stone piers, a foundation method found throughout the town of Ulysses. By raising the structure off the ground like this, rats and other vermin were kept out of the grain. The weather vane atop the crib is believed to have been hand forged by a blacksmith in Free Hollow, sometime in the 1820s. The joists supporting the floor of the crib are massive half-logs from white oak, helping to support the weight of several tons of corn when the crib was full.

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This farmland has been in the Reed family since the 1830s. The brothers Levi and Truman Reed once owned all of the land between Turkey Hill and Game Farm roads. The original barn at this location was struck by lightning and burned down in the late 1910s. The present barn was built in the 1920s by Henry Reed at a cost of approximately $3,000. Reed reused parts in the previous foundation but built this barn higher than the original barn. Logs from the farm and the surrounding woods were used in its construction. The barn was used as part of a dairy farm operation until the 1970s.

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