High drive barn

[Sigarms]

I was up in Vermont last week with the family as my wife had to be up there for work (more fun for me and the boys compared to my wife who was stuck working all week). Wife's family has been in Vermont since the early 1700's and decided to show the boys all the family related "things" that their mom had connections to. Looking for the family farms, took what I thought was the correct backroad, and after running through a quarter of tank of gas on unpaved roads recognizing nothing during my drive, decided to ask a local working on his house for directions. He told me "go up the hill, bear left, go under the barn, hit a dead end, then hang a left and keep going" and I'd get to the paved road. I was wondering what the guy meant by "go under the barn" when I came across this...




When I showed my wife the picture, I take pride in the fact that she had absolutely no clue where I was at as she didn't recognize the barn in the pic (although I was somewhat close to where the family farms were LOL). My FIL was a power lineman up in Vermont for 30 years, and funny enough, he knew exactly where I was at. He informed me that this was a "high drive" barn. The barn was built where the horses can "walk" directly onto the second level of the barn though the second "level" extension hanging over the road. I was perplexed as to how in the heck horses could actually get into the barn from the road, when my FIL explained to me that the road was created AFTER the barn the built (barn built in 1903). The horses would come directly from the left side on the entrance on the hill that was supporting the barn extension.

I've got to admit, nothing in south really has anything on Vermont for pur beauty, remoteness and ruggedness, except for the fact that the south doesn't have a mud season and if you see 5" of snow for the year, you're lucky

 

[Sigarms]

On a sidenote, the one place we couldn't get the boys away from was their mom's local swimming hole. Ask the boys what they wanted to do for the day, and it was be at the pond swimming, 5 days a week LOL

 

[RHP]

Great pictures! I was a bit perplexed before opening up the picture,at first it just looked like a covered bridge New England is noted for. That barn is truly unique, thanks for the picture.

 

[KennyG]

Is the barn cantilevered or is there a foundation I can't see in the picture?

 

[tractchores]

Very cool. I've driven under that barn, though for the life of me I can't remember what town it's in. VT has some interesting ingenuity at times! (I lived there for 20 years)

 

[J35]

Is the barn cantilevered or is there a foundation I can't see in the picture?

If you look to the left I believe I can see a rock foundation sticking out of the greenery.

-------J

 

[J35]

That's the first barn loft I have seen that you could drive under.

But I have seen quite a few barns that you could drive 2 1/2 ton trucks loaded with hay or grain right up into the loft.

-------J

 

[Sigarms]

Very cool. I've driven under that barn, though for the life of me I can't remember what town it's in. VT has some interesting ingenuity at times! (I lived there for 20 years)

I've got to ask, what where you looking for when you got back there? LOL I had idea of where I was going (which was pretty much in the middle of no where) but still got lost. Had to laugh when my father in law was telling/asking me where I went. He knew the area like the back of his hand I had absolutely no clue as to what he was talking about per how the roads interconnect with each other.

 

[tractchores]

We were trying to go fishing at one of the ponds near there and we're having trouble finding the access point. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere... I went to college not to far from there so we did a lot of exploring.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for posting the picture, I've never seen anything like it and love that it's become a local landmark.

Eddie