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Earliest Section of the Lawrence Barn
The earliest structural section of the building is a late
18th century English style barn. Built using a medieval technique for timber
framing called the "scribe rule", it's construction required a high
level of craft skill and knowledge. This frame, from the quality of its hewn
surfaces to the fit of its joints, is exceptionally well done.
Some features of particular significance in this structure are:
The builder designed a unique and ingenious roof framing
system to deal with the engineering issues associated with the barn's roof and
upper walls.
Part of the barn's original floor, treenailed to its
supporting joists has survived.
Many of this barn's corner braces, particularly those in the
roof frame, were riven or split from straight grained oak instead of being sawn.
The eastern end of this barn has an interesting feature: a
dovetailed, half lapped down brace, treenailed to the post and east wall top
purlin. It appears to be original work. This type of bracing was common to
medieval English timber framing practice. John Butler 7-19-99
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