Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Old Hutchison Barn

We live in Hutchison's Corners, have I ever mentioned that?  We're met with a lot of puzzled looks if we mention that, but a few locals know where we mean.  It's named because a Bill Hutchison had a farm on the corner, with both the house and barn quite close to the road.

I remember the old barn itself; it blew down in a windstorm about 10-15 years ago, and has been a jumble of broken boards, beams and rubble ever since.  But the present owner is cleaning up the mess, so you can actually see the foundation.  What interests me is the pattern at the front and centre, where you can see the stonemason alternated diagonal lines of light and dark blocks of stone.

Here's a closer look though I should have moved the old door.  The light coloured blocks are limestone, and the dark are various sorts of much harder igneous or metamorphic rocks.  This is one of only two barn foundations I've ever seen where there was such an effort to create a pattern with the stone.

It amazes me how the old travelling stonemasons could do this, cutting blocks into flat sides and right-angled corners.  It involved a lot of heat and iron wedges I think, but the corners they created on these old barns 150 years ago are truly amazing.

Just look at these enormous blocks, much too heavy for anyone to easily lift.  The darker blocks obviously have a lot of feldspar in them (the pinkish colour), but to think how they could be cut into flat-sided rectangular blocks just boggles my imagination.

They weren't nearly as careful with the other sides and back of the barn, using any boulders they could find, but still cutting them roughly flat on one side and creating square corners where windows and doors are, and at the outer corners.  Virginia Creeper is crawling all over the walls.

The inside walls provide an even more motley pattern, with rocks from small to large used where they would fit, along with a lot of mortar.
Another inside corner, where the mortar is starting to fall away.  I was attracted to this barn foundation because of that unique diagonal pattern of blocks on the front, so I stopped by and talked to the owner when I saw him working outside to ask if I could come over and take some pictures.  I think he feels that cleaning up the old foundation could be a selling point for the property once he decides to sell.  

It's a large old bank barn, so you can stand on the bank at one end and look down on the walls.  The bank provided vehicle access to the loft for unloading hay.  Imagine a garden inside this foundation - that would be Mrs. F.G.'s dream!

There's also an old driveshed that avoided the windstorm and is still in use.  It was a perfect day to go over and take a close look at the old Hutchison barn foundation.


20 comments:

  1. Is it too late to cancel the new home, and move in here? Huge blocks,how did they move them?? And the patterns, a work of art by many.

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  2. Beautiful work from a simpler but more labour intensive time.

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  3. How neat looking and imagining how old buildings like this were made. It's quite lovely and now we know why it is called Hutchison's Corner. :)

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  4. The foundation makes great ruins photos of long time past. They had to have block and tackle to set some of those stones. I could see going back every year to takes shots of that now gone barn. The patterns of the stones are decorative. I liked seeing the old shed.

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  5. What an amazing foundation and boggles my mind how they put this together so many years ago., love the photos.

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  6. Hello, the remains of the old stone barn are neat. Great series of photos. Happy Sunday, enjoy your day and the new week ahead.

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  7. The odd barn was built with stone in the west. I suppose a few stone masons came west during pioneer times. The remains of these barns are left.

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  8. That is a lot of history in those old walls. If only they could speak.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  9. Old barns are just my favorite. Any way, shape or form. Your photos are so beautiful. Carol

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  10. these are some great images. i can't image the labor involved in building walls like that!!!

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  11. Wow that old barn foundation is quite fascinating. I hope they leave it.

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  12. I love stonework...it has always fascinated me. And I always wonder how things were built, specially back then. It would be hard enough now.

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  13. It's really impressive! I also wonder about the mindset that allowed the people who did this to accomplish something so unique. Thanks for sharing it, FG. :-)

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  14. The creativity of the old stonemasons and how tedious all this hand work must be. But it is wonderful to see. thanks for sharing it with us
    MB

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  15. I think it's nice its still there, kind of like an icon to the area.

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  16. Interesting that the foundation still stands!

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  17. That barn must have been a real beauty in its time. Would have been nice to see all of it. Wonderful workmanship in those stones.
    I like stone buildings a lot.

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  18. It's always fascinating to me to see how older buildings were constructed given that those doing the work did not have the modern machinery used today. This barn must have been a real beauty in its day.

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  19. It was beautifully done back in the day.

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  20. I guess they'd have had ways of producing dressed stone, just as medieval and earlier masons did? Talking of medieval masons, love the way they've mixed the stonework on 'your' barn to create a pattern - they used to do that in the middle ages too.

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