Barn at Three Springs Farm

Description:
A Pennsylvania German bank barn, the barn at Three Springs Farm represents
the predominant type of vernacular architecture shared by 58% of barns
surveyed in a 2006 inventory of Pennsylvania historic barns.1 At the time
this summary was written, the barn was 117 years young, and in good
condition.  Having escaped significant alterations, the barn retains its
original two levels and three-bay floor plan.  The exterior dimensions of
the lower stable area roughly approximate 44’ x 71’ (3,124 square feet),
and the upper level measures 51’ x 71’ (3,621 square feet) including the 7’
deep forebay, a capacious total of 6,745 square feet of floor space.

No date stone exists, but pride in craftsmanship of the barn’s construction
is evidenced by inscriptions on both the chest board of the granary and the
uppermost board of a stable ventilator.  These inscriptions suggest the
barn was constructed by “E. B.” and “H. A. Bucher July 26, 1890”. H.
(Harry) and E.B. (Ed Bucher) were brothers attributed with building several
barns in the Franklin Township area and owned a cooperative of farms
totaling several hundred acres, formerly known as the Rife farm and dating
from the early to mid-1700’s.  The current barn likely replaced a log barn
recorded in the tax census of 1799.  Several timbers in the current barn
are notched in a way that is inconsistent with their current function,
betraying their origins but suggesting that the earlier log barn was
disassembled and its hewn logs salvaged and reused to make some members of
the current barn. This hypothesis is additionally supported by many of the
current barn’s components that exhibit materials and construction
techniques typical of eighteenth century barns including hand hewn timbers
of heroic scale, hand wrought ironwork (hinges, nails, hooks, bolts and
latches) and the cantilevered forebay.

The entire super structure is of hand hewn logs and timbers framed in post
and beam construction.  All members exhibit mortise and tenon joinery,
bored and locked together with large oak pegs. On the first level two
massive summer beams provide the main support for the barn.  The larger
beam measures 18”x15” and spans the full 71’ length of the barn with only a
single splice midway in its span. On both levels, two sets of four bents
serve as the mighty bulwarks supporting the weight of the barn.

Stoutly constructed of stone, walls on the first level are pargetted on the
inside.  The front corners are rounded presumably to accommodate the weight
of the overhanging forebay and upper barn frame.  The cantilevered forebay
provides overhanging protection of six Dutch-style stall doors that
prevented animals from wandering in from the pasture, while providing added
ventilation.  These doors are separated by four shuttered ventilators built
into the front stone wall that allowed ventilation while also providing
light into the basement stalls.  The northwest-facing stone wall contains
two doors – one near the front and the second near the rear – with a double
twin sash window midway between the doors.  The southwest-facing stone wall
is built into the bank and contains two small windows high on the wall,
reminiscent of an English basement.  Another interesting feature is the
corbelling of a section of the stone wall beneath the threshing doors, the
bottom of which projects well into the stall area.  Thickening to the
bottom to nearly twice that of the surrounding walls, this construction
technique was implemented to protect the wall from collapse - compensating
for the repeated downward pressure of the outside ground compacted over
time by the passage of heavily-laden wagons.

Two bays in the first level were used to house and feed livestock.  A third
bay was used as a stable for horses, and includes stout pegs that were used
for hanging tack that span the length of the wall between the doors.

The second level is vertically sheathed in 11 ½”x1” planked siding.  This
level served as two mows, a threshing floor and a granary.  It is divided
into galleries (or aisles) and a central space (nave), an architectural
feature of great significance common in Pennsylvania German bank barns
formed by massive posts forming three bays.  Central queen posts measuring
8”x9” in the bents flanking both sides of the nave include integrated
ladders. The northeasterly aisle, or gallery, in the mow forms the ceiling
of the forebay.  It is a cantilever formed by projecting the upper floor
joists beyond the foundation wall and supporting the upper barn frame. The
central bay was used as a threshing floor and provided access to the other
two bays which served as hay and straw storage. A 9’ wide sliding door
serves as the solitary opening in the front wall of the threshing floor,
and double sliding doors span an 18’ 6” opening at the rear of the
threshing floor opening onto the ramp at the rear of the barn.  These wide
doors served dual purpose as entrance for the wagons and other farm
machinery, and because of their southwest exposure in the long axis
parallel to the hilltop at the rear of the barn afforded maximum advantage
of sunlight for extending the work day until dark.  The left-hand wagon
door contains a keyhole door, a man-sized door convenient for pedestrian
traffic and protecting the barn’s contents while in use during windy
conditions.  A five compartment granary occupies the front gallery of the
northwest bay. With a set of fodder stairs leading to the lower level of
the barn at one end of the granary, the northwest façade is punctuated by a
single door at the opposite end of the granary.  King posts extending from
the threshing floor to the gabled roof ridge measure 10”x10”.  Between the
king posts at both ends of the barn are functional and aesthetically unique
ventilators, elaborately constructed of louvered panels and a keystone
topping a central palladium flanked on either side by rectangular vents.

The symmetric gabled profile roof is covered in corrugated tin, and
includes two alternating rows of “snow angels” near the lower edge of both
the front and rear roof lines. The peak of the roof has a central lightning
rod with a milk glass globe strike indicator and integrated weather vane.
Two additional lightning rods flank this central rod on both sides and tie
together with the gutter on the front and rear roofs to form a ground plane
that has effectively protected the structure for over a century.

The barn underwent bird proofing and a thorough cleaning in preparation for
the owner’s fiftieth birthday celebration in 2007, and was preserved in
2009 with multiple coats of exterior paint and an interior coating of
linseed oil . Its former support of agricultural production – farm
equipment, straw and hay storage and the housing of beef cattle and horses
– today, the barn primarily provides a facility for storage of implements
and vehicles supporting ongoing orchard operations as well as an informal
venue for large social gatherings.

Plaqued in 2009 as number 38 on the Historic Gettysburg Adams County Barn
Preservation survey, the barn is located on a 120 acre parcel continuously
farmed since being established in 1740.  The property is currently:
   ·    Enrolled in Clean and Green (Act 319)
   ·    Located in the Agricultural Security Area of Franklin Township, Adams
      County, PA, USA
   ·    Subject of an Agricultural Conservation Easement (Land Conservancy of
      Adams County)

1 The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, A Legislative Agency of the
Pennsylvania General Assembly.  The survey was a result of an October 2005
resolution unanimously passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
and Senate recognizing the importance of the state’s historic barns (HR 463
and SR 190). The resolutions urged the state Department of Agriculture
(PDA) and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) to
inventory and catalog historic barns in Pennsylvania.

Location:
Three Springs Farm
215 Oak Tree Road
Franklin Township
Adams County
PA, USA
(Note: Use Biglerville, PA 17307-9428 for MapQuest – see map below.)

Lat/Lon (GPS):      N 39˚52.257’
            W 77˚20.829’

Contact:
Jonathan Ingram, 703-627-5368, threespringsfarm1843@gmail.com