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When they were originally constructed a century or more ago to house animals, feed and equipment, their builders could never have imagined that their barns would one day draw visitors from throughout the United States and the world.
The diversity in construction, shape and condition alone make it worthwhile slowing down to look them over. There are some, such as the round barns in Waitsfield and Elmore that demand your attention.
The massive barns at Shelburne Farms are too much to take in at first and seem more like a manor house than a barn. These and other barns were the subject of a recent documentary Barns: Legacy of Wood & Stone, produced by Vermont Public Television (VPT).
“When you visit an old timber frame barn, you can really see connections to the land – and to our past. Soaring haylofts, rutted wooden floors where the cows wore a path, hand-hewn timbers cut from local forests...” says Caro Thompson, producer and host for Barns, who enjoys talking about this subject.
The show not only featured the imposing edifices of Shelburne Farms, but also an operating 10-sided dairy barn in Strafford, and a preservation project in Peacham. Other locations include East Burke, Leicester, Richmond and Newbury, with a few stops in between.
When you’re in Vermont, the best routes for barn viewing are State Routes 22A and 30 on the western side of the state; State Routes 12 and 14 on the West as well as any route through Franklin County.
Plan to spend some time on your next visit getting to know Vermont -- and our barns -- a little better. You’ll come away with a whole new appreciation for these everyday, utilitarian structures that represent a time, and way of building, long past .
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