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HVVA
NEWSLETTER, September 2001, Part Two From the Editor: On two Saturdays, Bob Hedges and his wife Marjory, and Todd Scheff and I manned the Barn Coalition table at the State Agricultural Fair in Syracuse that is open for two weeks before Labor Day. It is the largest in the State and attracts endless streams of cars and people from the area who come to enjoy the exotic foods and visit the endless exhibits and demonstrations. The Barn Coalition table and display was in the Witter Agricultural and Carriage Museum that contains a nice collection of early farm tools, wagons and carriages. The classic architecture of the museum's exterior also houses a restored one-room log cabin, a late 19th century example. Its simply furnished interior, with a ladder to the loft fIxed to the wall beside the fueplace, conveys a strong reality of the regions past frontier lifestyle. There were a number of traditional craft demonstrations
and interpreters at the Witter Museum. We reminded them that the 113 grants had been selected from 7,000 applications We provided them with information on the next round, and how to get the new application form from the State. (*) Bob Hedges, who is restoring a barn in Gallitan, southern
Columbia County (**), called me Steve Swift, of Middleburgh, up on the Mohawk River, was hired by the owner to remove the bam. He has salvaged some of its parts. The destroyed frame was in an altered and fragmented form before its demolition. There were no sills or original rafters left. The foundation measured approximately 42 foot wide by 54 foot long. Trying to interpret the original side entrance building from the bulldozed pile of mixed-together timbers, some already moved and removed, was difficult. The early frame is significant in a number of ways. Grooves in the lower 7-foot studs along one entire 42-foot wide end wall indicate an infill of riven wood slats covered with mud and straw, a type of infill used for heat insulation and typical for frame houses in the Hudson Valley until the introduction of the cast iron stove in about 1840.
In a telephone conversation with Steve Swift I learned that he had also noted the unusual gouge marks in the Itkin barn and noted that there was infill evidence also on the other end wall as well but he could not tell about the sidewalls. He said that the circa 1770 Fredrick Dutch barn in Stone Arabia, that he recently disassembled and moved, had lines and flags like those in the Silvernail barn. He also told me of recent discoveries at the Huguenot Historical Society in New Paltz where he had done some work on the restoration of the 1694-1717 Abraham Hasbrouck house. A transom frame for leaded glass and another window frame for a double casement sash were discovered bellow later work. Like the cross casement window frame in the 1696 Bevier-Elting house and the casement sash with leaded glass rediscovered a few years ago in the loft of the Deyo house, these New Paltz artifacts are rare survivals.
Some time ago, Jack Sobon pointed out the association of the gouge chisel mark with the use of early spoon and nose augers used to drill holes in the timbers. The carpenters started the auger in a gouged pocket. The introduction of the lead screw auger in about 1770 made the gouge chisel unnecessary for this and so not part of the tools the timber frame carpenter might carry. Roman numerals cut with a straight chisel are commonly found on later scribe-rule frames Bob Hedges has found columns re-used as sills in the Mintzer barn (Col-Gal-1) with gouge marriage marks indicating some early architectural survivals in the area. We plan to go up to Middelbergh and document more of the timbers of the Itken frame stored there. During the past few weeks in the small rural town of Gallitan here in the Hudson Valley one old timber frame has been demolished and the parts taken north. We have heard that another barn was disassembled and moved to a place and by a person unknown and that one disassembled timber frame from far away was brought in by the New Jersey Barn Company to be reconstructed as a house. Our Ulster County Republican Representative never got back to us about our interest in purchasing the Harry Siemsen house in Stony Hollow from Ulster County to use as a museum site(***). In the meantime we have been contacted by the local newspaper, the Kingston Freeman, and so we will go to the people. Ted Hillsher of Green County, owner of a wide swingbeam barn, has offered his legal services pro bono to HVVA. We now have circa 170 members and $210.49 in the bank. Without debts or obligations but some cash in hand and a few friends who share our interest we proceed with the mission. Peter Sinclair, Editor Spillway Farm, West Hurley Notes Top Sectionof Post from Internal Bent _/Itkin (Col-Gal-3 Barn Callitan, Columbia County, NY Copyright © 2004. Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture. All rights reserved. All items on the site are copyrighted. While we welcome you to use the information provided on this web site by copying it, or downloading it; this information is copyrighted and not to be reproduced for distribution, sale, or profit.
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