We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
This barn, made by Chuck Hewitt of Chinook, is modeled and scaled after a real barn east of Chinook. Hewitt built the miniature because of his interest in barns with a gambrel roof-the classic two part roof used on many old barns.
Reporter's note: Several days ago Chuck Hewitt, a retired teacher who lives in Chinook, asked if I'd seen the barn he made. He said it was on display in the lobby of the First Bank of Montana. He added, "You should check it out." I'd seen some other projects Chuck had built so figured this might be interesting. I stopped in to see it and later asked him about the barn. Here's the story behind the barn currently on display in the bank lobby.
Asked, "Why did you build the barn?" Chuck's first response was, "Just for kicks and giggles." Then he got a little more serious and explained his interest in old barns in the region with gambrel roofs. He had to explain that a gambrel roof was the classic shape of old barns-really a symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The classic "barn roof shape" was familiar but the name is not all that common.
Gambrel Roof
When senior readers think of an "old barn" likely an image of a red, tall structure with the classic gambrel roof shape comes to mind. About the only new barn-type buildings, with that roof, are now built for some other purpose-living quarters, a play house for a child or a small version used for a storage shed or part of a garden landscape. Truly "They don't make them like that anymore," at least not for use on operating farms.
The oldest surviving structure in the United States, with a gambrel roof, is the Peter Tufts house in Medford, Massachusetts. It's a colonial-era house, not a barn, and was built around the mid-1670's. The oldest surviving framed house, the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts, has an addition with a gambrel roof, but the addition came sometime after the original structure.
How the gambrel roof came to be adapted in the U.S. is not historically clear. And why it was eventually used on barns is even less well understood. One theory is that European sailors saw houses in Indonesia with a hip roof that ended with a gable at the ridge-the gable was an opening to allow smoke from cooking fires to escape. Another explanation is that mariners brought the idea back from the Netherlands. Or, it might have just been a practical reason-to allow wider buildings using shorter rafters, resulting in more space on a top floor and avoiding additional taxes.
Sorry for the short "chasing the rabbit" trip, but I've always been curious about the gambrel roof and thought readers might wonder about the shape of so many old barn.
Chuck's Barn
Chuck explained the inspiration for the barn project came from a real barn, of the same style, east of Chinook (about two and a half miles) along Highway 2. He said, "I went out to the barn and took measurements." He used those measurements to create a scaled model of roughly one inch on the miniature equals one foot on the real barn. His miniature, at the base, is 28 inches by 36 inches and 28 inches tall. He added, "It's not a perfect scale model."
On display the barn has the two long sides allowing children, or adults for that matter, to put animals, equipment or other items into the interior. The interior has a walkway down the center from one end with a wide door, and cow stanchions, feed boxes, stalls and a tack room. There are "slide in sides" that cover the exterior if desired. The two sectioned roof, hinged on the lower part of the roof, can be opened for access to the hay loft. Chuck asked, "Did you notice the hay bales in the loft? I made those, baled with a miniature baler." He laughed at his little joke.
The outside has the traditional red paint with window and door trim painted in white. Even with the sides up and roof partially opened, it certainly has that "classic barn" look.
Chuck said this was not his first barn-making project. He went on to explain that he'd made several smaller barns as presents ordered for kids, especially at Christmas time. Some of those prior barns were made so little kids could play with their Breyer horses in the barns. The Breyer horses, still popular with children and collected by adults world-wide, first were commissioned by F.W. Woolworth stores (an early dime store chain for you youngsters) and became popular with kids since first introduced more than 50 years ago.
Asked about plans for the barn, Chuck thought a bit and said, "I still have few things to add to complete it, like latches on the stalls and doors and more racks in the tack room, a few things to make it more authentic." Chuck added, "I'll keep it a while and then either sell it or give it away. It was just a building project, there's no real emotional attachment to the barn on my part."
How many hours did it take to build the barn? Chuck said simply, "Too many. I started last February, took a break for a while and then got serious this fall and completed it to this point. If I got a dollar an hour for my time and sold it for $500 I still wouldn't make anything."
Watching and listening to Chuck as he described the project, he didn't seem concerned about the time or materials he spent making the barn. It seemed it gave him great pleasure just to commemorate an icon from the American farm. Take a few minutes to stop and check out the barn with the gambrel roof in the bank lobby.
