Product Description
Across America old barns of all kinds are being imaginatively converted into new spaces in which to live and work. They offer luxuries otherwise scarce at any price today - lofty spaces, sound and intricate construction, and dramatic sunlight and shadow. With over 500 photographs, Lving Barns shows how to get started in reusing these buildings of our past for homes or commercial buildings. This book is an inspiring guide for adaptive restoration, including a survey of the types of barns found across the United States and advice for salvaging barn timber and moving structures. A stunning selection of residential and commercial projects -barns transformed into homes, studios, offices, churches, community centers, theaters, art centers, motor lodges, and the like, are shown. The barns featured range from those almost completely recycled by homeowners, to more ambitious renovations by architects. By preserving barns - whether by reusing original wooden pegs or by recalling the architectural forms in contemporary design - Living Barns shows how we can reclaim a part of our country's heritage and, at the same time, share and honor the spirit that led our ancestors to build with care and pride these unique and splendid structures. Originally published in the 1970s, this classic book has been updated with color photographs, sure to be treasured by architects and preservationists for generations to come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Sharing my barn
In 1979, Earnest Burden asked permission to photograph our barn in Pennsylvania for his upcoming book..Living Barns..We were thrilled to be included.......does that sound a little house proud?When Amazon notified me of the new book that was to show new barns, as well as the 1979 ers, I thought I would order.I was stunned when I opened the package and saw my barn on the cover.What a delight.....I ordered a copy for each of my children.My barn is the small insert on the left.If you did not send out suggestions based on previous orders, I surely would have missed it......
Agnes Penque

Living Barns:How to Find & Restore a Barn of Your Own
This book is informative and offers some good advice.The photos are encouraging and nice to look at.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in converting the wonderful open space of a barn into a residence or use commercially.

Thank you,

Cheryl Erb ... Read more

Product Description
From Provincetown to Woods Hole, barns in the English and New England styles dot the landscape of Cape Cod's fifteen townships. Over 340 beautiful color photos display these fascinating structures to their best advantage, including many colorful details. Wooden and stone barns alike appear here, dating from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. They were built for sheltering animals, grain, cranberries, strawberries, turnips, and asparagus. Cape Cod's only full-sized nineteenth century stone barn is included. The text provides a brief introduction to each of the townships as well as fascinating insights into each of the barns displayed. Architects, Cape Codders, and aficionados of the agrarian lifestyle will find this book entrancing. ... Read more

Product Description
The contemporary reawakening of interest in the historic folk buildings of North America has made us see old barns with new eyes, even as many of these simple, dignified structures vanish from the landscape.With spectacular full-color photographs, The Ultimate Book of Historic Barns is a fascinating pictorial essay into the history, geography, symbolism, ethnic roots, design and technology, and lore and legend of these vernacular buildings - - the focal point of the family farm when agriculture was a way of life for most people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review
This is a beautiful book.I liked one I already had so much, I bought this one as a gift. ... Read more

Product Description
Recording traditional American barns in their classic regional styles, a photographic tour highlights such types as Vermont red barns, round Shaker barns, Kentucky horse barns, and the rustic barns of the Plains.Amazon.com Review
If you're tired of the suburban sameness that characterizes somuch of the American landscape today, you'll find a walk throughAmerican Barns: A Pictorial History well worth the trip. Thishandsome coffee-table book not only presents barns as the idealmeeting of form and function, but also explores their distinctregional styles--from corncribs to hay barns to dairy barns to horsebarns. Ninety-three color photographs accompanied by straightforwardbut informative text present a vision of rural America that can be,well, frustratingly hard to find--especially for those of us used totraveling by interstate, shopping at the mall, or living in cities ordevelopments far removed from rural America. Here are the New Englandconnecting barns, the Connecticut fieldstone barns, the round Shakerbarns, the classic Vermont-red barns, the Southern tobacco barns, theAppalachian log barns, and the slope-roofed prairie barns. Seeing themall in one volume is enough to make you crave a slice of applepie. --Kimberly Brown ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful book the whole family will enjoy!
I loved this book. My husband has a huge fasination with barns and he got my two little 5 and 6 year old boys into them too. For his birthday last month i got him this book. He was wild for it. When ever he is not lookingat it (almost never) the boys stare at it for hours. It is never justsitting on a shelf at our house. They even have me into barns now!

Amazon Fan, Margret K. ... Read more

Product Description
A tribute to the barn by the master documentarian of our time.

As an elemental part of our landscape and our history, barns evoke childhood memories for many of us, recollections of a simpler way of life. Regardless of their size or shape, their forms follow their functions. They are honest. They are beautiful. And they are rapidly vanishing. Across the land we see abandoned farms with barns falling down, being torn down, and only occasionally being converted to other uses. As urban sprawl eats up the countryside and food-producing Goliaths put small farmers out of business, the need for old barns has diminished. For most of his life as a photographer, David Plowden has admired and photographed barns. In recent years, as their disappearance accelerated, he made it his mission to document these beautiful structures, before they too are lost. The result is this beautiful book, his hymn to the American barn. 130 duotone photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Just Barns
When I was a child in the city, we always were told that barns are red.I can't remember how many I drew in kindergarten.In later years when I was an aspiring artist, I loved to do pastels of unpainted barns because of the wide range of colors in individual boards.So it has come as a surprise to me that some photographers have decided that their artistic record of the vanishing American barn should be preserved in monochromatic tones.Perhaps the photographers think that black and white is more artistic than color and that these barns deserve artistry.(Most people familiar with the works of today's color photographers would feel that color can be just as artistic.)

David Plowden's book is a collection of such black and white pictures taken of barns across the Northern United States from New Hampshire to Montana, with a few stops in Canada.The pictures are simple shots of barns, both inside and outside.Neither human nor animal appears in any of them.The photographer states that his purpose is to capture these structures before they vanish from the American scene.The pictures are direct and almost confrontational.

Given Americans' long-standing belief that we are an agrarian society, these pictures should appeal to some ineffable feeling in our souls.Clearly this book tells us that it is meant to be art.It's sized for the coffee table, has plenty of white space in the text and often has a blank page opposite a photograph.And yet this book seems curiously lacking in soul, and static.It seems merely a record.

The reason why is quite simple.The range of light in almost every one of the pictures is strangely constricted, as if the pictures were always taken on a cloudy day.Perhaps we've just been taught that black and white photography should cover the full range of light from the deepest blacks to the clearest whites.This is the tradition of fine arts photography passed down to us from the likes of Ansel Adams.Plowden seems to have taken a different path, and it doesn't contribute to his stated goal.

For someone interested in artistic pictures of America's barns that elicit a feeling of loss for the past, I would instead recommend "Harker's Barns", an unassuming soft cover book by Michael Harker, published by the University of Iowa Press.Unlike Plowden's book, this is an undiscovered treasure.And unlike Plowden's work, the pictures have a strong subtext of love for the subject.

A gorgeous coffee table book
Photographed, compiled, and presented by David Plowden, The American Barn is a grand, black-and-white photographic survey and showcasing of classic barns across America -- many of which are disappearing in an increasingly urbanized world of agribusiness and suburban sprawl. A brief introduction complements a majority of the photos comprising this visually impressive tribute, which is devoted to nothing but full-page photographic images. A gorgeous coffee table book The American Barn is recommended academic and community library photography collections as well as to rural architecture buffs with a special interest in barns. ... Read more

Product Description
Until Jamestown was established, nothing in North America grew taller than the native forests, grasses, and mountains. Beginning in 1620, the settlers who plowed the indigenous sod also dotted the virgin landscapes with towering, stately structures, the likes of which had never before been seen on the continent.

This photo/essay treatment of barns in America is arranged by the five distinct roof styles that have largely come to define American barns, presenting six 20-page spreads detailing the Dutch, bank, crib, round, and prairie styles.

The result captures the pastiche of rural America through stunning photography, conveying everything from stone barns in hard-scrabble Maine to thoroughbred barns in the lush bluegrass regions, to traditional Gambrel-roofed red barns in the Midwest. Regions represented include New England, the Southeast, the mid-South, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, the desert Southwest, and California. There is an in depth examination of how styles developed out of necessity and anecdotes from those who work and live on farms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Barns
I was really looking for a book that can give you ideas of how to remodel your barn in different climates.We recently purchased a new home in Oregon and put all of our machinery in the pole barn.Well, the machinery is starting to rust.So I bought a bunch of these "Barn" books thinking that I could find some ideas of how to insulate our barn.No such luck.However, this book is pretty nice. ... Read more

Product Description
A guide to features of the North American landscape that reflect the history of each region includes information about all types of barns and farm structures in the United States and Canada, and explains how their designs reflect their purposes. UP. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

If I had only known.....
This field guide has what I consider to be soso black and white photos and drawings of each type of barn and supporting structures. If you are looking for accurate information on a style of barn and where it may be located this is the book for you.I would perfer better quality photo's and some color. Rather boring presentation!

Fantastic Book on Barns!
For what I wanted the book for it is a fantastic resourse.I build model barns and covered bridges.This book has not only given me new ideas but also a history behind them.Love the book.

Frustratingly brief presentation
While the book presents numerous types of agricultural buildings from all over the U.S., it doesn't go into any sort of detail about any of them, making it of limited reference use. ... Read more

Product Description
A generously illustrated handbook for identifying and understanding structures that symbolize the region's unique cultural and historical landscape. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Where Is Southern New England?
Despite many mistakes in the layout and composition of this little book, the author has done an admirable job of researching and presenting a dauntingly diverse subject, except for the inadequate photography.One imagines him spending many hours taking and cataloguing and captioning the numerous photos, which are essential to understanding the subject and its details.Too often, however, the camera is too far away or the photos are reduced to such small size that the reader comes away with an impression, rather than a clear idea.It's evident the book suffersfrom budgetary constraints, and in this instance those constraints have hurt badly.
A final complaint -- the title is misleading.Despite the inclusion of a few Connecticut tobacco barns, this is a guide to NORTHERN New England barns.Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine barns are well represented.

Old Barn Owner
Having just purchased an old barn, I found precious few resources to assist in gleaning a history.Visser's book was concise, informative, and a pleasure to read.It provides valuable insight to the development of agricultural styles, and valuable clues to dating the agrarian landscape.Excellent source.

Excellent as a reference work or as a handy field guide.
The following is an excerpt from a review in Vernacular Architecture Newsletter, Feb. 1999.

The outbuildings of rural dwellings havecustomarily received less attention than the dwellings themselves.Thefields of architectural history and historic preservation have long focusedon dwellings, for such reasons as their sheer abundance and the fact thatthey may have been repositories of the fanciest and trendiest architecturaldetail.But visitors to rural areas will often find that a farmstead'sensemble of outbuildings may overshadow the dwelling in size, number, orvisual prominence.The outbuildings reflect past activities of people andanimals, and connect the dwelling to the system of fields, fences,driveways, and other farmscape elements.

Thomas D. Visser, AssociateProfessor and Interim Director of the Historic Preservation Program at theUniversity of Vermont, recognizes that barns and other outbuildings are farmore important than as mere picturesque elements of the rural landscape. From the massive barn to the lowly privy, "each has a story totell."In his Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings,Visser provides "clues for deciphering the many layers of historyspread over the rural landscape... to help observers... realize thewonderful insights that can spring from an understanding of the evolutionof our rural heritage."

Visser's book may be used two ways, as areference book and as a handy, portable field guide.It stands alone as agood concise history of New England farm buildings with an understandableconcentration on barns, the most necessary structure of a farmstead otherthan the dwelling. The specific fieldwork for this volume took two yearsand was concentrated in areas preselected for their relevance.Thefieldwork not only made possible this excellent guide to identifying,understanding, and appreciating farm buildings, but recorded a dwindlingcultural resource.Visser has for years encouraged the preservation ofbarns, building interest among their owners.This book, it is hoped, byincreasing awareness of these often neglected structures, will advance thecause of their preservation.

The Field Guide to New England Barns andFarm Buildings will prove informative and entertaining to a wide audience,from agricultural historians to New England residents who haven't trulyappreciated the value of farm buildings as cultural resources. ... Read more

Product Description
If barns could talk ... As icons of American history, barns have a lot to tell us about our country and its rural roots. A striking photographic tribute to historic barns of the West, Barn in the U.S.A. reveals the fascinating stories behind these landmarks. Relive the showdown at the O.K. Corral, visit Will Rogers's stables, and find out why barns are red, all within the pages of this beautiful book.

Barn in the U.S.A. contains photographs and historical information on over 40 bars that are located in California, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado.

Additional information regarding barn architecture, styles, preservation and the Barn Again! program is also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Best barn book!
Now I know why barns are red.Why they are shaped that way.Why a barn raising was a big celebration in rural America.This beautifully illustrated book tells about Will Rogers' barn, Leland Stanford's barn, the infamous O.K. Coral, and other historical and interesting facts about barns. And as they are disappearing fast, it's good to have such a book.
Richard Proctor
Past-President,
Conference of CA Historical Societies

A lovely acquisition.
Barn lovers and any interested in barns old and new will find this a lovely survey of historic barns of the West. Landmark structures, their appearance in notable classic films, and details on both architecture and history compliment full-page color photos of the barns in their current settings. Any with an affection for old-time structures in general and barns in particular will find BARN IN THE USA a lovely acquisition.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Great book for barn lovers and preservationists alike!
This is the FIRST barn book to focus on the eleven Western states. Great stories and wonderful photographs.

The stories give a nice background on each barn its link to local history.

A must have book for Western history buffs, preservationists, and barn lovers. You will be very pleased with this book! ... Read more

Product Description
A complete guide to great backyard buildings with ninety four designs of barns, stables, garages, sheds and garden structures; plans that you can purchase directly from their designers; a directory of hard-to-find building products, guide books, kits, timber frames and prefab buildings; and good advice on site planning and construction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

OUT OF STOCK
YOU DID NOT SEND ME THIS BOOK. THIS IS THE ONE I REALLY WANTED. I GOT A NOTICE TELLING ME IT WAS OUT OF STOCK.

INSTEAD, WHEN I WAS TRYING TO ORDER THIS, YOUR CROSS-SELLING SYSTEM SOLD ME ON A TWO FOR ONE DEAL....

THE BOOK I ACTUALLY GOT WAS OKAY, GOOD FOR GENERAL CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BUT NOT THE CONCEPT/DESIGN INFO I WAS LOOKING FOR.

the ultimate source book
If you are looking for plans for barn construction, this is the ultimate source book.It also includes sources for everything from stables and garages to sheds and playhouses.A helpful bookbefore beginninga building project.

Great start for ideas
Definately designed to get you started with ideas for a small countryhome. The best part of the book is the references to dealers and builders.

Just What I Was Looking For
This book was just what I was looking for to find plans for a horse barn. It's a resource tool, not a picture book. It would be useful to someone who knows what size and type of structure they want to build and don't knowwhere to find the plans. The authors give a good synopsis of the framingoptions that a homeowner has when considering building, and pros and consof each. Also, I reccommend reading the paragraphs about laying out yourfarmstead.

A House-Plan Catalog for Barns!
Clever idea! There are 400+ house plan catalogs on Amazon.com - just this one on barns. Pretty, Old-timey barns, fair prices for blueprints, nice directory, fun to read. A good buy! ... Read more

Product Description
Living in a barn requires a sense of adventure, but once experienced it becomes an addictive way of life, according to the owners of some of these converted barns. Now, in place of cows, horses, fodder or hops, the new occupants of the barns are people who have painstakingly restored a valuable part of the British countryside. Many are artists or architects whose imaginations have been challenged by the potential of a medieval monastic barn, Palladian stable block or towering hopkiln. 24 barns are featured, accompanied by colour photographs showing both the exteriors and interiors, and all were once empty, threatened or derelict. Salvaged by imaginative conversions that respect their agricultural past and dominant architectural features, the barns have been transformed into a variety of comfortable and surprisingly practical homes. Kate Corbett-Winder is the author of "Vogue More Cash than Dash", "Vogue Even More Dash Than Cash" and "Laura Ashley Living Rooms". ... Read more

Product Description
The barn is the quintessential image of rural America -plain, simple and straightforward. This book takes an in-depth look atthe barns that have dotted the American countryside for centuries.

This book is divided into four sections. In the first section, authorHeber Bouland provides an overview of barns in America - tracingthe origins back 500 years. The second section describes barn lifeduring the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when electricity andthe internal combustion engine hadn't fully replaced horses and manuallabor.

The third section details five of the great American barns, showinghow they met the needs of their time and region. These barns includethe log barn, the German bank barn, the adobe, the round barn, and themodern dairy barn. The final section is filled with pictures andcovers barn beauty. It contains a wonderful color section showingbarns in a variety of settings and seasons.

This isn't just another pretty picture books of barns (although itdoes have great pictures). Discover for yourself the historicalrichness of barns, understand barn life, and appreciate the beauty ofbarns. Over 200 photos, more than 30 in color. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a re-issue of Sloane's classic folksy history of barn folklore, architecture, and history, which has been out of print for twenty years.

"Eric Sloane's An Age of Barns" is filled with fabulousblack-and-white illustrations from this great Americanartist. Covering all types of American and Canadian barns andeverything associated with them-implements and tools, hex signs,silos, out buildings, hinges, barn raising, and more-"Eric Sloane's AnAge of Barns" is a spectacular album tribute to this important facetof our architecture and agriculture. This book is sure to once againbecome a collector's item. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Close, but I'm not sure Mr. Sloane would be pleased.
Alas, printed in China and missing the wonderful color plate illustrations found in the original edition.

An Age of Barns by Eric Sloane
This is THE definitive book on barns.We own one copy in Virginia and now bought another one for a our other home in Nova Scotia.

It isa masterpiece for learning about old barn designs and also construction techniques. Barns have become our family passion.An old barn from Maine, the parts, is to be reconstructed and made into our home outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.My son has tarped and is salvaging two old structures here in Nova Scotia...which will be moved to a different location on a new beach/pond piece of ours in Nova Scotia. Our 250 year old farm house on the ocean has a spectacular old barn!

Eric Sloane has clearly directed our way.Many others who appreciate these spectacular old heritage structures need his book! Whether you want to just page through and look at old barns- or recreate and salvage the buildings- this is IT!

Fall in love with old barns
Eric Sloane truly loves his subject and his detailed descriptions and accompanying drawings of old barns make this a fascinating book.Part history, part art, this book catalogs the different styles of barns common in our nation.After reading this book you'll have a much greater appreciation of American barns and sight seeing in rural America will become a much richer experience.

Keeping history alive
Wonderful art and historical images.Delivery was prompt and the book was in great condition.

Brings Back Memories
Other reviewers have done a good job of describing this and I agree with them. I'll just add that this wonderfully illustrated book really brought the memories flooding back. ... Read more

Product Description

Indiana is barn country. Beautiful, aged barns can be found tucked among bucolic fields from Valparaiso to Vincennes. Once a dominant feature of the Hoosier landscape, these evocative buildings are fast disappearing, giving way to more efficient, but less visually appealing, metal structures. Indiana Barns presents 138 of these charming rustics, drawn from the portfolio of photographer Marsha Williamson Mohr. Mohr has been photographing barns, covered bridges, and pastoral scenes for more than 20 years. Here, she showcases barns of all shapes and sizes, captured from every angle, during all four seasons, and in various states of repair and decay. Whether you have owned a barn or just admire the craftsmanship, this lively collection is sure to delight.

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Customer Reviews (2)

great story, great photos
This is a really great book if you want a little history and you care about the disappearing barns. I'm an old barn owner with little knowledge about what these things meant to my elders. I imagine my grandparents and their day to day lives when I read this story. It's an easy read.

Living in a Barn
We live in a Yankee Barn Home in Minnesota that is constructed from 150-100 year old timbers from old barns and industrial buildings from the east coast. As such, we are fascinated with the tradition and long standing barns across this great nation.BARNS of MINNESOTA captures the essence of the old barns in this great state of ours. We purchased this book along with the BACKROADS of MINENESOTA to be able to combine scenic backroad trips along with the opportunity to search out the old, wonderful barns. We highly recommend these two books as a great set for backroads scenic adventures that highlight some of the great barns of Minnesota! See you on the backroads! ... Read more

Product Description

Classic barns of North America.

This book celebrates the era of North American barn-building known as "The Golden Age of Barn Construction," from the early 1700s to the mid-20th century. The author explores the variety of barn styles, pays tribute to the craftsmanship of their builders, and chronicles the lives and times of both the barns and those who built them. Barn Building is illustrated throughout with contemporary color interior and exterior photographs, historic black-and-white photos, and the author's own illustrations.

The barns featured are in various European and North American styles. Some examples:

• Log barns
• Round barns
• Dutch barns
• Octagonal barns
• English barns
• Sixteen-sided barns
• Quebec barns
• Shaker barns
• Bank barns
• Star barns.

Specific barns include, among many others, a Vermont cider mill, bank barns in Ohio Amish country, a Pennsylvania star barn, and a Quebec mystic barn.

Rural life has been forever changed by mega-farms and urbanization. Barn Building celebrates the remarkable treasures of rural architecture that still dot the landscape.

Customer Reviews (1)

steve's gift
This book was a gift for my nephew's birthday.He is a school teacher who has received many awards for his teaching abilities.He enjoys interesting books to read in his spare time.He called me and said this was a fascinating book. ... Read more

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