Ursinus College Digital Commons @ Ursinus College Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection Winter 1981 Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 30, No. 2 Robert F. Ensminger Terry G. Jordan Bryan J. Stevens William B. Fetterman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Folklore Commons, Genealogy Commons, German Language and Literature Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, History of Religion Commons, Linguistics Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u. Recommended Citation Ensminger, Robert F.; Jordan, Terry G.; Stevens, Bryan J.; and Fetterman, William B., "Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 30, No. 2" (1981). Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine. 91. https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/91 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ~ontrilJutor~ ROBERT F. ENSMINGER is associate professor of geography at Kutztown State College. He has taught there since 1966 with M.A.'s from Lehigh and Rutgers Universities. His investigation into origins of the Penn­ sylvania Barn grew out of a concern for preserva­ tion of Pennsylvania German culture and his specific interest in folk art and the vernacular architecture of that culture. His article synthesizes five years of re­ search into the Pennsylvania Barn. TERR Y G. JORDAN is professor of cultural geography and departmental chairman at North Texas State Uni­ ver ity in Denton. He specializes in the study of traditional American culture and recently published Texas Log Buildings: A Folk Culture (Austin: Uni­ ver ity of Texas Press, 1978) and" Alpine, Alemannic and American Log Architecture" (Annals, Association of American Geographers). BRYAN J. STEVENS, M.D., is a practlcmg psy­ chiatrist in York, Pennsylvania. He has long held an interest in antiques and old houses and is widely­ read and self-taught in these areas. He and his wife purchased the Messerschmidt-Dietz farm in 1978 and plan to live there following restoration of the cabin. WILLIAM FETTERMAN i a recent graduate of Muh­ lenberg College whose major for his B.A. degree was in English. Born in Allentown, PA, in 1956, he likes literature and music and has begun studies in both, independently. Dissatisfied with the modern world, he tries to live with it anyway, he says. He has become interested in folklore studies in recent years. A memorable occasion was his meeting with the late Millen Brand. STEVENS I ~enn~lJ(bania IiSOUfie I DITOR : WINTER 1980-81, VOL. XXX, No.2 Will iam T . Parsons DI TO RIALADVI ORY OMMITT Mac . Barrick Monroe H . Fabian CONTENTS John B. Franz Thoma . Gallagher, Jr. Albert T. Gamon 50 A Search for the Origin of the Penn ylvania Mrs. Arthur D. Graeff Barn Howell J . Heaney ROBERTF.E MI GER H einrich Kelz Earl F. Robacker Karl Scherer Antje Sommer 72 A Forebay Bank Barn in Texas Don Yoder TERRY G. JORDA FOLK FE TIVALDIR E TOR: Mark R. Eaby, Jr. FOLKF STIVALPUBLIC R ELATIO 78 The Swiss Bank House Revisited: Peg Zecher Messerschmidt-Dietz Cabin SUBSCRIPTIO S: BRYA J. STEVE S Nancy K. Gaugler P SYLVA IA FOLKLIFE, Winter 1980-81, Vol. 30, 0 . 2, pub­ 87 Paul R. Wieand, Lehigh County Folk Artist Ii hed four time a year by P enn- WILLIAM B. FETTERMA ylvania Folklife Society, Inc., P.O. Box 92, Collegeville, Pa. 19426. $2.00 for ingle copie , Autumn, Winter & Spring. $1.50 for Summer. 94 Aides un Neies/Old & New Yearly subscription $7.00; Back i - ue (v.21-30), $2.50 each; others P .O. R. CONTRIBUTORS MSS AND PHOTOGRAPHS: (InsideJront cover) The Editor will be glad to con ider MSS and photographs ent with a view to publication. When unsuit­ COVER: able, and if accompanied by return One oj the oldest Berks County Pennsylvania Barns postage, care will be taken for their still standing in the twentieth century, against a return, although no responsibility background oj schematics and sketches oj regional for their safety i a umed. German, Alsatian and Swiss barns and house-barn EdilOriaJ correspondence: Dr. William T. Par ons combinations. In no more dramatic way can we P.O. Box 92, suggest the emergence oj the Pennsylvania Barn Jrom Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426 antecedents in German-language speaking Europe. Subscription, business correspondence: Layout and P.O. Box 92, Special Photography: WILLIAM MU RO Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426 Folk Festival correspondence: College Blvd. and Vine, Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530 Folk Festival public relations: Peg Zecher, 26 E. Knowlton Rd ., Media, Pennsylvania 19063 Contents copyrighted. Entered as second class maHer at Collegc:ville, Pa. ISSN 0031-4498 A SEARCH FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE PENNSYLVANIA BARN by Robert F. Ensminger Leiby barn, 1871, Lehigh County, PA. Typical nineteenth cen tury Pennsylvania Barn with jorebay supported by extension oj basement walls. This barn photo 1975 by author, a all other contemporary barn photographs. INTRODUCTION late colonial times. De criptions in travel narratives, new paper ,journal and government reports reveal it In southeastern and outh central Pennsylvania dur­ popularity and verify its morphology which ha contin­ ing the period between the middle and end of the eigh­ ued basically unchanged for two centurie. Alfred teenth century, there emerged a two and a half story Shoemaker in hi 1959 book, The Pennsylvania Barn, multiple purpose barn which fitted the contemporary provide excellent documentation of the e various agricultural technology. This barn was larger than ource . I In 1956, Dornbu hand Heyl, in their book, previous pioneer and first-generation barns. It could Pennsylvania German Barns, pubJi hed the first de­ house livestock in the basement, permit thre hing on tailed de cription and analy is of thi barn form. 2 They the second floor, store hay in large mows and lofts, established a classification ystem which ugge t evolu­ and protect grain in the bins of the granary which tionary tage in the development of the forebay barn. was usually located in the forebay. The forebay, or The first scholarly inquiry into the location and extent second floor extension, projects over the basement of the e barns wa completed by Glas in 1971. In stable doors and is the distinctive and diagnostic his Ph.D. dis ertation, The Pennsylvania Culture Re­ feature of this structure which has come to be called gion: A Geographical Interpretation oj Barns and Farm­ the Pennsylvania Barn. The forebay barn became houses, Glas mapped the actual di tribution of Penn­ dominant by ISOO and today still dominates the rural sylvania Barns to support his the i that the area of landscape of much of Pennsylvania. their distribution provide a visible urrogate for the Recognition of and interest in this barn dates back to Pennsylvania Culture Region. 50 y intere t in thi topi date ba k (0 19 '" hen I \~as enrolled in a ettlement geograph our e at Rutger ni er it. I can re all general tatement made about foreba barn and implication that their form rna tern rom uropean protot pe . ore re entl, hile tea hing cultural geograph at Kutztown tate ollege, I de eloped a trong intere t in rural ettlement geog­ raphy. R earch and tud re ealed frequent referen es to Penn I ania Barn and orne definite idea as to OrIgin. Then, e\·eral ear ago while looking at old family photograph , I came acro a nap hot from the late 1 00'. y ife' grandfather tood with friend beneath the forebay of a barn in hi homeland of witLerland! The exact location of the photo i not known . Thi er ed to inten ify my intere t and focu re earch into the problem of the origi n of the barn. My earch for the e origin the ubject of thi article. / " "ROANOKE o 20 4,0 6? MI LES _ PENNSYLVANIA BARN REGION - From Glass, Tht Penns),lwUJw Culture Rtgion. p . 38. Used wah permmlon 0/ (he author. The e and other writers have made significant state­ ment over the year contributing to our knowledge of the barn. Most writers have referred in varying degree to its development and origin. Their state­ ments will be reviewed, analyzed, and documented in this report which will examine in detail the problem of determining the origi n of the Pennsylvania Barn. Where did it come from and why does it have a fore­ bay? In pite of the practical value provided by a fore­ bay, extra space above and protection below, most Family photo in S witzerland under jorelJay OJ a oam. barns in North America do not have them. Even the large two and a half story barns which occur from southern Quebec through upstate New England and REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. from New York to Wisconsin lack the forebay. 3 Prac­ The first person to make a definite statement about tical need did not influence the utilization of a forebay the origin of the Pennsylvania Barn was Marion Learned, in these examples. However, banks, bridges, and professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at the ramps for second floor access are consistently found in University of Pennsylvania. His paper, "The German these as well as Pennsylvania Barns. It is a common Barn in America", published in 1915 cites European error to use the term "bank barn" when referring prototypes as logical ancestors of the barn.4 He refers to the Pennsylvania Barn.