Restoration Plan

Restoration Chronology
Horse Barn
Working Barn
1920s Fill-in
1940s Add-on

Restoration Discoveries & Questions

photo - South Wall before Restoration

The south wall was the first part of the Horse Barn to receive attention. The original sill, although still sound in places, needed to be replaced. To prepare for its removal, and to allow restoration mason Thom Livingston to work on the foundation, we needed to lift the wall off the sill.

This was done by building four towers out of cribbing, two inside and two outside the barn wall. Cribbing jacks were placed on the towers, and oak beams put through the walls, under the main tie beam. These oak beams were then used to lift the wall. Since there was nothing tying the lower section of wall to the upper, boards were nailed on as cleats to hold the wall together. Once the weight of the barn was off the sill it was removed. The towers were set far enough from the wall to allow room to work on the wall and foundation.

photo - South Wall cribbing - August 25, 2001

The original sills clearly show axe marks so we decided to replace them with hand hewn timber. This first sill was hewn from a section of Swamp White Oak that came from the Howell Farm woodlot. Dave Kirkpatrick and Tevis Stites-Robertson worked on it as a demonstration during the Plowing Match on 1 September 2001 and Tevis finished it over the next two weeks as a demonstration for school groups. Once Thom had re-laid the foundation, the new hand-hewn sill was put in place.

photos - Sequence of hand hewing a sill
photo - South Wall raised and ready for new sill - August 25, 2001
photo - New sill in place

In early November 2001 we began installing two lines of 6"x6" oak posts and beams inside the barn to help support the mow floor. Because the ends of these lines are built into the south wall, their installation allowed us to remove the support jacks. Before the oak posts could be installed, we had to get the old section of wall out of our way. We began removing siding to explore whether any of the studs were worth salvaging. After deciding that none of them were; the cleats were removed and the wall dropped. We also pulled the trim off over the doorway at the west end of the south wall. We found quite a bit of damage to the tie beam there, the trim having apparently served to catch and hold moisture. The damaged portion of this bean would eventually be cut off and a new piece spliced in to connect it to a new southwest corner post.

photos - New oak support posts and wall studs
photo - Tie beam showing damage on west end

Once the wall was supported on the 6x6 posts, studs were installed between them, and at around the same time we raised and installed the new post on the southeast corner.

At the end of January 2001 we installed the new sill for the West Wall, and that allowed us to install the new section of the corner column in the southwest corner. We were then also able to put in the new piece of the tie beam over the doorway at the west end of the South Wall. We put in an oak 6x6 as a doorjamb, and finished framing in the South Wall.

photo - Tie beam showing new piece spliced in place and 6x6 post as door jamb in southwest wall
photo - Overall view of South Wall in March 2002

In July new siding was put on the south wall.

photo - The southwest corner of the horsebarn showing both the west wall and south wall siding.