Restoring the Dutch Barn
by Robert Hedges

Although the Dutch controlled the Hudson River for only half a century their influence on Hudson Valley culture is enormous. The Dutch barn in particular, with its unique H-bent frame, can be traced to the eastern part of the Netherlands as far back as the 12th century, but was still being built right up until the last quarter of the 19th and possibly even into the 20th century in eastern New York. No other building type within the U.S. dates back to medieval Europe. (For a better understanding of what makes a Dutch barn distinct from a Hudson Valley or English barn, see Figure 1 below.)

Of the thousands, if not tens of thousands of Dutch barns built in the U.S., fewer than one thousand remain. If one were to only count pre-revolutionary barns found on their original sites the number is fewer than one hundred. Ulster County is the epicenter of all the remaining barns with about 100, Dutchess county numbers about 60. These are approximations because on rare occasions Dutch barns are still being found within the structures of newer buildings or in obscure locations. Far more often, however, they are sold, moved, structurally altered for housing or other applications, or simply left to neglect and ruin.

The range of the Dutch barn outlines the range of Dutch settlement in this country. Although Dutch barns continued to be built after the revolutionary war, they were not built outside the areas that the Dutch had settled prior to the war. There are a few exceptions, including barns built in Kentucky by soldiers given land grants after the war, another being immigrants from the Netherlands settling in Michigan in the 1830s, and a Dutch group of Loyalists who, upon fleeing to Canada at the start of the war, built barns north of the St. Lawrence.

The Dutch were not road builders and followed waterways in expanding their settlements along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers as well as their tributaries. Along the eastern side of the Hudson in Dutchess County most of the early Dutch barns close to the river were erased by 19th century wealth and expansion, but east of Rhinebeck there is a large concentration in the Wurtemberg area and beyond. As one travels east there are fewer and fewer Dutch Barns to be found. The farthest east they are found in northern Dutchess County is Pine Plains, where there are two on the west side of Stissing Mountain, along the Hamm Brook. There is evidence of Dutch influence in western Massachusetts, but no barns or vernacular structures exist there. The east side of the Hudson is interesting as the English and Dutch cultures merge, with the English pushing in from New England.

Figure 2: left: Scribe rule joinery; right: Square rule joinery (interchangeable)

New York at the time of the revolution was only sparsely settled, seventh of 13, behind Maryland in population. After the war the population exploded and by 1830 had become the most populated state. This growth brought about huge changes in the Hudson Valley. Up until that point the frames of all buildings were scribed (see Figure 2 above). Each scribed member of the frame was created individually. Parts of the frames were fitted together and taken apart numerous times before the final construction, and these parts were not interchangeable. Joining members were usually identified by marriage marks such as Roman numerals. The English, Dutch, and French all had different techniques for scribing frames, evolved over centuries, but just after the war builders began to realize that by diminishing a timber to a uniform size at the joints, the lengths of the timbers could be predetermined. Parts could be mass-produced and all braces could be cut uniformly, reducing tremendously the time necessary to cut a frame and decreasing greatly the skill level necessary for building. This system is called square rule and the first known written use of the term is from a 1792 building project in Orange County. Square rule is also mentioned in the building of the Episcopal Church in Pine Plains in 1815.

In addition, advances in tool making, such as the introduction of drill bits, reduced the time in boring holes, while nails went from being individually hand-forged to being mass produced by machine. All these advances in building happened between 1780 and 1820 and were adopted very quickly in New York because of pressures from population growth.

There was also a massive change in agriculture in the Hudson Valley with a shift of grain production from the valley to the Mohawk and beyond. These changes brought an end to the Dutch barn with very few being built after 1830. Only two are known to have been built after the Civil War, one in Dutchess and one in Ulster.

The Dutch barn, because of its longevity and its footprint, has become valuable in the study of building techniques, the evolution of tools and materials, and local and regional changes in agriculture. By virtue of the timbers used in the construction of these barns we gain insight into the local forests and their evolution over recent centuries. The large timbers used in the construction would not have traveled far, coming instead from very local sources, or even the property on which the barn was built. The barns reflect, perhaps more closely than any other structure, the land from which they are built.

Figure 1: left to right: Dutch Barn frame; American Barn frame, sometimes mistakenly referred to as English Barn. Originated in the Hudson Valley; English Barn frame. Found occasionally in New England, but not in Hudson Valley

There are two Dutch barns being preserved locally; one is a frame being reconstructed by the Saugerties Historical Society at the Kirstead House, the other is at the Palatine Farmstead in Rhinebeck, which is under the guidance of the Quitman Resource Center with the help of a matching grant from New York State. Although in need of much repair, the barn at the farmstead is one of the most finely crafted frames in existence. The large, finely hewn timber and the near perfect joinery make it a pristine example of the craftsmanship involved in its construction.

For more information on Dutch barns visit the Dutch Barn Preservation Society website, Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture (HVVA), or find The New World Dutch Barn by John Fitchen in its second edition. It has been edited and new material added by Gregory Huber and the result is an invaluable resource on the subject.

Robert Hedges is in charge of the renovation of the Palatine Farmstead Barn. He is a member of the Timber Framers Guild, on the board of directors of the Dutch Barn Society, and currently serves as VP of Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture.