Hathaway Barn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Hathaway Barn
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 Location in Maine
Location in the United States
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| Location | 135 Nortons Corner Rd., Willimantic, Maine |
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| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1880 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Italianate |
| NRHP reference No. | 03000288 |
| Added to NRHP | April 22, 2003 |
The Hathaway Barn is a really old and important barn located in Willimantic, Maine. This quiet town is in southern Piscataquis County. A man named Jabez Hathaway built this big barn around 1880. He hoped it would be a big part of the dairy farming future in the area. The barn is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which means it's a very special historical building!
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What is the Hathaway Barn?
The Hathaway Barn is a special kind of building called a bank barn. This means it's built into the side of a hill or "bank." This design allows you to enter the barn on different levels from the ground. It sits on the west side of Nortons Corner Road.
A Special Type of Barn
This barn is huge! It measures about 80 feet long and 55 feet wide. It has a strong timber frame, which means it's built with large wooden beams. These beams are held together with wooden pegs, not nails. The barn sits on a tall foundation made of granite stone.
The ground slopes away on the east side. This creates a natural ramp, letting you get into the basement level easily. The barn also connects to a carriage barn. This part of the building has three sliding doors and one regular door.
Jabez Hathaway's Farm
Jabez Hathaway started his farm around 1857. He built the main farmhouse first. This house was a typical New England farm home. Over time, the farmhouse has been changed a lot. It was even turned into two apartments. Because of these changes, the house no longer looks like it did when it was first built.
Built for Dairy Farming
The big Hathaway Barn was built around 1880. Jabez Hathaway likely built it because he expected a big demand for dairy products. In the 1870s, there was a boom in Maine for cheese and butter. He probably thought his farm would need a much bigger barn to keep up!
The design of the Hathaway Barn was very modern for its time. It was similar to a barn built at the University of Maine at Orono in 1873. This type of barn was even promoted by the state as the perfect design for dairy farming.
How the Barn Was Built
The barn's large timber frame uses wooden pegs to hold the main parts together. Smaller parts of the barn were put together with wire nails. These nails were a newer invention around 1880. This mix of old and new building methods helps us guess when the barn was built. The way the barn was framed also allowed for very large open spaces inside. This was a new idea for buildings in the 1880s.
