BARNS

By Doug Swinney

Barns are one of the most common structures on the Palouse.  They are some of the few surviving structures of the past.  A barn is defined in agriculture as a farm building for sheltering animals, their feed, and other supplies.  Barns were named according to their purpose, as hog barns, dairy barns, tobacco barns, tractor barns, or general use barns.  The most common barn in this area was the general use barn, used for housing mules, cows, calves, and sheep, and for storing hay and grain.  This is what barns were built for, but as time went on tractors were invented and these uses for the barn declined.  Today barns are mainly used for storage of grain and machinery.

The traditional color of barns was red.  Why red?  There are several theories to answer this question.  One person said ferrous oxide, a primary component of red paint, was inexpensive and this appealed to thrifty farmers.  Another said they used red to simulate brick and wealth.  Others say it was a supply and demand tradition.  Farmers, when asked why they painted their barns red, replied that red paint was available and cheap.  If paint producers were asked why they produced so much red paint they said it was because farmers wanted it. 

Wood is the traditional barn material, but sheet steel and aluminum have increasingly been used since World War II, particularly on large farms.  Barns usually consisted of two stories, the first to shelter animals or machines and the second to store hay or grain, though one-story barns gained popularity in the late 20^th century.  The main difference between barns was their shape.  The most common was the square barn, but there were also round barns and octagonal barns.

One type of barn was a late bank barn.  These were also called dairy barns.  This type of barn was built from the 1870s to the 1900s.  It was built by farmers specializing in dairying.  It was a large multi-storied barn built for plenty of space for dairy cows, and an upstairs for hay and feed storage.  This style went out in the 1910s and was replaced by the ground stable barn.  These have a gambrel roof for a hay loft and the downstairs for dairy cows.

Today many barns have been abandoned.  In the winter the old rickety roofs can't take the weight of the snow and this is usually when they collapse after rotting for years.  Also, many barns fall victim to violent wind storms.  The old structures can only handle so much.