Press enter after choosing selection

Cobblestone's New-Old Barn

Cobblestone's New-Old Barn image
Parent Issue
Ann Arbor News, July 11, 1982
Day
11
Month
July
Year
1982
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

 PHOTO JOURNAL

Cobblestone's new-old barn

Photography by Gregory Fox

One of the dreams of the Cobblestone Farm Association has been to reconstruct the entire farm outbuilding complex.

Recently a major step in that direction was begun with work on a barn for the historic farm.

Best of all, the barn is being reconstructed using the "post and beam" construction of the period.  This style uses no nails, but has a few strong frame members carefully joined together and then pegged with wooden pegs.  (Actually, many old barns built in this style do not have pegs, but they add strength to the frame.)

Heading the construction team is local builder Robert Foulkes, an expert in this old style of building, which has remained popular in Europe and is especially well-developed in Japan.  It has recently enjoyed a renaissance here because of its ability to accommodate the large windows needed in passive solar design.

Foulkes and his helpers assembled the frame members on the ground in the old-fashioned way, but instead of having a "barn raising" with neighbors, a crane was used to put them in place.

At left Robert Foulkes makes a fine adjustment to one of the mortises by which the beams are joined; Foulkes is using a special thin-blade Japanese pull-saw.

Above Foulkes and his helper Andy Buesser carefully join one of the rafters together; at right Buesser pounds in peg which makes the joint stronger; below, a detail of one of the hand-hewn mortises.

The skeleton of the barn is now complete, sturdy enough to last a century or more, and ready for the framing.  When completed, it will be a handsome addition to the historic farm complex.