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De La Brooke Tobacco Barn
Inventory No.:
SM-411
Date Listed:
12/29/2015
Location:
Delabrooke Road, Mechanicsville, Saint Marys County
Category:
Building
Period/Date of Construction:
Ca. 1815
Related Multiple Property Record:
Tobacco Barns of Southern Maryland
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Description:
The De La Brooke Tobacco Barn is located on the north side of Delabrook Road near Oraville, Maryland. The barn stands at the edge of a small agricultural field that is surrounded by forest. The barn has not been used for many years and is in a deteriorated condition. The barn stands at the edge of a small agricultural field that is surrounded by forest. The barn has not been used for many years and is in a deteriorated condition. The barn was constructed ca. 1815 or earlier. Intact building fabric illustrates several significant construction features of Southern Maryland tobacco barns from the late 18th to early 19th century. The barn’s structure is built of pit-sawn timber with mortise and tenon joints secured by wooden pegs or wrought iron nails. Down braces reinforce the framing. The barn’s framing system and nail patterns reveal that it was originally sheathed with horizontal siding. Other significant features include tilted false plates and a unique system of vertical tier supports. The 36’ by 42’-6” barn was expanded through the addition of two 10-foot-deep sheds along the longitudinal sides. The sheds, which consisted of pit-sawn timber, are likely early additions to the structure. The barn terminates in a steeply pitched gable roof oriented on a northwest-southeast axis. The slopes of the roof extend uninterrupted over the northeast and southwest sheds. The roof is sheathed with corrugated metal sheets. This barn has a cross axial plan with one entry on each wall for access. The gable ends have 7’-10”-wide and 10-foot-tall entries with double-leaf doors that open outward. Each set of doors is built of vertical boards with horizontal and diagonal battens and has wrought metal strap hinges. The longitudinal walls each had an entrance positioned near the center of the wall. Evidence of the former entrances is provided by pintel holes and latch recesses that are visible on the posts that framed the doorways. The barn has continuous sills with mortise-and-tenon corner joints secured by wooden pegs. The sill on the northeast side has been replaced with a circular-sawn one of comparable size. This new sill was mortised to fit the tenons of the other sills, but is secured to the framing members with machine cut nails. A sill bisects the barn from northeast to southwest. All the sills are raised above the dirt floor by ironstone, bricks, and wood blocks at various heights to level the sills. Ironstone is underneath the corners of the sill on the northwest side and where the additional sill joins the sill on the southwest side. Brick is positioned beneath segments of the sill on the southwest side of the barn, including at the south corner. Wood blocks prop up other segments of the sills. At present, the sill on the northeast side and the additional sill are underpinned just at the corners. The framing system consists of hewn principal posts centered on eight-foot bays and pit-sawn studs on two-foot bays. Both the posts and studs are tenoned into the sills. Down braces reinforce the wall framing. The down braces are tenoned into the sills and corner posts and secured by wooden pegs and wrought nails. The system of closely spaced wall studs indicates the core section was originally clad in horizontal siding. In fact, one piece of weatherboard survives on the southwest wall. It is secured with wrought nails. Nail patterns on the two exposed longitudinal walls of the core also provide evidence that horizontal siding was once the exterior sheathing.
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Significance:
The De La Brooke Tobacco Barn is locally significant for its architecture as described in the Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF), “Tobacco Barns of Southern Maryland.” Based on the historic context, “Southern Maryland Tobacco Barns, 1790s-1959,” it is a significant example of a Southern Maryland air-curing tobacco barn from the period 1800-1830s. The De La Brooke barn embodies the hallmark design and construction features of an early-19th-century tobacco barn from this region. The barn also employs a unique system for supporting the tier poles in the barn. Although in a deteriorated condition, the barn retains a good level of integrity. For these reasons, this barn meets the registration requirements of the Property Subtype: Air-Curing Tobacco Barns of the Nineteenth Century, as defined in the Multiple Property Listing.
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