New England barn

[12] The construction is very different from the English barn typically being built using the square rule method of joinery, raised in bents, increasingly of sawn rather than hewn timbers, common rafter roof framing with purlin plates, designed to be used with a hay track, straight posts rather than flared (gunstock) posts, and dropped tie beam framing rather than the English tying joint.

This is a significant difference between the Pennsylvania Barn where the cows were housed on the basement level.

Roof overhangs of a foot are typically built in on the gables and eaves protecting the walls from water.

Later in the 19th century these barns may also have ventilators or a cupola on the roof to help reduce moisture build-up inside.

The number and size of cows were larger and were given more headroom so the New England barns were not just longer and wider but taller.

The defining characteristics are the big, swinging doors on the sidewall with strap hinges mounted on pintles and three or sometimes four bays.

The doors being on the side walls creates the spatial arrangement of the bays being the main divisions of these barns.

The framing was raised in sidewall assemblies, made with hewn timbers, in northern New England frequently had common purlin roofs, and often framed with the English tying joint on flared (gunstock) posts although these are not defining characteristics.

The middle bay was used for unloading hay wagons, threshing (thrashing) grain and other work.

The foundation was typically not quarried stone but fieldstone and had no basement thus are called a ground barn.

The timbers used were typically one solid piece running the full length of the building sometimes over forty feet long.

The cows often stood on the ground rather than on a wood floor, their heads facing the middle bay in what is called a tie-up (not individual box stalls).

Other special-purpose buildings were common on rural farms, such as a milk room, corn crib, workshop, wagon shed, and ice-house.