How old is this Barn?

[JHALL]

Can any of you guys put a guesstimate age on this barn? Wife's grandparents built their house in the 70's. This was an old dairy barn that was there from a long time before, but we're trying to put an age on it.

I took some pictures to try to help with an estimate. Maybe they're helpful? If any of you have any ideas, let me know, or let me know if there's any additional pictures I could take?

 

[BFE]

A similar barn up the road has 1910 in wooden numbers on it.

 

[JHALL]

A similar barn up the road has 1910 in wooden numbers on it.

Any idea where I'd look for a date? Where's it at on theirs?

 

[Buck Randall]

A similar barn I'm familiar with was built in the 1890s. Rectangular nails mean it's almost certainly more than 100 years old, assuming they used new nails when it was built.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Vertical siding should make it pre 1900. Hewn and pinned beams pre 1900. "Jesus nails'' pre 1900.

 

[wbvs58]

Looks old to me, loved looking at those photos. It looks pretty straight and sound from those photos. I'd love to have something like that.

Ken

 

[sstterry]

Looks old to me, loved looking at those photos. It looks pretty straight and sound from those photos. I'd love to have something like that.

Ken

Come visit me, my whole farm is like that

 

[jltrent]

That was back in the day when the community would get together and have a barn building as I would say 1880-1895 range. I have several old barns and one I talked to a neighbor at the time was close 90 and he said the barn was built before his time. Around here the tobacco cropping is almost gone which the old barns were used for and most are getting in pretty bad shape. My old barn is 5 tiers high in the middle for curing tobacco and if I don't get some roof repair soon it is going to damage. I have been on it several times and can be a little scary.

Some of those old barns have Chestnut wood on/in them and are worth a lot of money. I talked with some guys who buy and tear old barns down and the old barn poles are really of interest to them, but they like them not notched to death.

 

[BFE]

Any idea where I'd look for a date? Where's it at on theirs?

It's on the outside underneath the peak of the barn. I think it was added later possibly for decoration. Only one I've seen with a date on it.

 

[JHALL]

Thanks for the responses so far everyone.

From the little I've read online about the types of nails used, the way roofs and trusses were made, etc can all determine when something was built, or atleast get close.

It does have a "basement" underneath the main floor. My wife says her grandparents use to keep their pigs down there. And the area on the side of the lower ceiling her and her sister used to use for their show cows. I'm sure it's got many stories to tell.

 

[JHALL]

Looks old to me, loved looking at those photos. It looks pretty straight and sound from those photos. I'd love to have something like that.

Ken

Unfortunately, it is not. I took pictures of the "good" side. The other side where it appears the foundation has been redone, the foundation is split bad and that side of the barn is beginning to fall in. The main floor is covered in hay (wife's grandparents used it for storage of small bales) and is sketchy in places. Some of the main runners for the structure on the interior have come out of place.

We'd of course love to keep it. We're just in the beginning stages of looking at our options. It is insured, but only if it falls over.

 

[TCRanch]

What part of Kansas? From what I understand, our main barn was built in the 1930's but we still have similar structures on the property with limestone as the base, as well as various rock walls (we're in the southern part of the Flint Hills). Still find a lot of square nails, especially after a heavy rain.

We've been hit twice by tornados but the main barn survived and we sided it with old barn tin. Each sliding door weighs 1000+ lbs.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Thanks for the responses so far everyone.

From the little I've read online about the types of nails used, the way roofs and trusses were made, etc can all determine when something was built, or atleast get close.

It does have a "basement" underneath the main floor. My wife says her grandparents use to keep their pigs down there. And the area on the side of the lower ceiling her and her sister used to use for their show cows. I'm sure it's got many stories to tell.

We have an old barn from the 1860s that has a basement as well. This is where the mule was harnessed to drive the screw drive shaft that powered the hay press above. They could compress bales so tight that they weighed several hundred pounds. The hay was loaded onto wagons and taken down the hill to the Ohio River for transport to New Orleans and subsequently to the east coast. Hay was the oil of the day if you think about it.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

View attachment 3981View attachment 3981View attachment 3980
A book was published a few years ago and our old barn was included. They say there are only 2 hay presses like this one left.View attachment 3980

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

 

[JHALL]

Very cool, Tennessee.

 

[JHALL]

What part of Kansas? From what I understand, our main barn was built in the 1930's but we still have similar structures on the property with limestone as the base, as well as various rock walls (we're in the southern part of the Flint Hills). Still find a lot of square nails, especially after a heavy rain.

We've been hit twice by tornados but the main barn survived and we sided it with old barn tin. Each sliding door weighs 1000+ lbs.

We're in NE Kansas, about an hour west of Kansas City.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Very cool, Tennessee.

Thanks.

 

[Ky hills]

This is an old tobacco barn, I don't know when it was built but when my side of the family inherited it in the 1990's it still had round pole tier rails for hanging tobacco. We changed most of them over to square tier rails. Found what a friend says is a horse drawn corn cutter in it. Back in the summer found one part of a horse collar down in the floor