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The Preservation of Historic Barns

Jeffrey Havelin, P.E.


Course Outline

The purpose of this (One-Hour) course is to provide the architect or engineer with a fundamental understanding and the technical knowledge associated with Historic Barns.

This course encourages the preservation of historic barns and other agricultural structures by encouraging their maintenance and use as agricultural buildings, and by advancing their sensitive rehabilitation for new uses when their historic use is no longer feasible.

Unfortunately, historic barns are threatened by many factors. On farmland near cities, barns are often seen only in decay, as land is removed from active agricultural use. In some regions, barns are dismantled for lumber, their beams sold for reuse in living rooms.
 
This course is based entirely on the web version of the National Park Service Preservation Brief 20 which is entitled “The Preservation of Historic Barns” as published by the National Park Service- U.S. Department of the Interior.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of course materials.


Learning Objective

This course will specifically review and provide an understanding of Historic Barns:


Intended Audience

This course would be very informative for Architects or Professional Engineers that are involved with historic barns.


Benefit to the Attendees

This course reviews various types of historic barns, and will help provide an increased knowledge of the characteristics of Historic Barns. This knowledge can help provide more sensitive interventions with historic barns, where the original material is preserved and the building's historic character maintained.


Course Introduction

The primary focus of this course has been to provide an increased knowledge of the characteristics of historic barns. This course encourages the preservation of historic barns and other agricultural structures by encouraging their maintenance and use as agricultural buildings, and by advancing their sensitive rehabilitation for new uses when their historic use is no longer feasible.


Course Content

This course is based entirely on the web version of the National Park Service Preservation Brief 20 which is entitled “The Preservation of Historic Barns” as published by the National Park Service- U.S. Department of the Interior.

The link to the course materials is as follows:

The Preservation of Historic Barns

(http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief20.htm)

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.


Course Summary

The primary role of the consultant is to ensure the continued life of the structure, therefore a knowledge of historic construction techniques and the special problems found in historic barns is essential. The consultant must assist the owner in planning for logistical problems relating to research and construction. It is the consultant's responsibility to determine the best ways to ensure that the original historic barn materials is preserved and the building's historic character maintained. By carefully examining the historic significance of each structure, the architect or engineer can provide plans that preserve and reuse these historic structures while maintaining their historic character.


Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.