THE LIVEZEY BARN
Yardley Pennsylvania (Formerly: Village of Yardleyville in Lower Makefield Township)
By Larry Hale - November 30, 2004 (Rev: July 2005)
DETAILS OF BARN LAYOUT AND CONSTRUCTION
The original “Livezey Barn” measured 40-ft by 24-ft, was two-stories high, and built on flat ground. The barn faced southeast in a downriver direction and had two 20-ft bays parallel to the river with the right bay (nearest the river) used for the carriage and the left bay (furthest from the river) for a stable. There was a hayloft on the second floor.
Trenton Times Newspaper, November 21, 1892... [Full Text of Advertisement]
Sale of Real Estate [Livezey House & Barn]… of Joseph Wilson, deceased…
"Situated in the village of Yardley, Bucks County, PA., consisting of a parcel of land and the improvements thereon. This property is handsomely situated on the River Road within five minutes walk of Yardley station. The improvements consist of a substantial Frame House, containing three rooms and hall on first floor, four on second, and finished attic; kitchen in the rear with pump therein; [and]
a substantial frame barn and carriage house, with stabling for four horses and room for as many wagons, cellar under part of it, and ample room overhead for storing hay, straw, feed, etc; also, wash house, chicken house and all necessary outbuildings. There is a good variety of front and shade trees and splendid garden. The buildings are almost new...
and in good repair. It is seldom such a nice home comes into the market as this, has to be sold to settle the estate."
Timber Framing
Floor beams, posts and girts, mortise and tenon joints with tapered hardwood pegs are exposed in the rear part of the stable, including one post at the rear of a stall chewed by horses. A small section of the vertical plank wall is preserved. Otherwise, parts of the timber structure are only visible in the unfinished attic and in parts of the forebay, or when openings are made in the walls or ceiling for various purposes. Most features of the barn do show-up through the interior geometry of the walls and ceilings, and on the exterior by the characteristic break in the pitch of the roof between the original barn (8/12 pitch) and the forebay (6/12 pitch).
Saw Marks
The beams and girts even after being sanded and stained still show very distinct original saw marks. The bands made by the saw are somewhat enhanced by being darker, apparently having absorbed more stain. Presumably the Livezey builders obtained their wood from the Yardleyville Saw Mill located nearby. This mill was water powered in 1832 and the saw marks appear to be made by early slow speed circular saws, but we have no detailed information on either the mill or what saws were used. The mill closed in 1901.
Saw marks on the floor beams over the stable consist of wide bands uniformly spaced on an angle and having a definite curvature ---the bands have a deflection of 0.4-in (distance from the outside arc to a chord extending from one end of the arc to the other) and the arc measures 8-in. Part of each beam is hidden. A 0.4-inch deflection between the chord and the arc together with the 8.0-in length of arc corresponds roughly to saw marks from a 40-inch diameter circular saw.
Saw marks on the beams between the girders in the outside wall also consist of wide bands uniformly spaced on an angle but the curvature if any is barely discernable. Admittedly only 5 ˝ inches of the beam is visible. In some places the bands appear have an up and down “W” shape. Measurements indicate roughly 7/16 inch saw marks spaced about 1 ˝” on centers.
Horse Stalls
An 1881 book shows 7 ˝ feet by 10 feet for the size of box stalls, and four stalls this size would have easily fit into the 20x24 stable. We know two box stalls were located generally in the rear part of the left bay. We have attempted to precisely position them based on the following clues:
Based on the above findings, the stalls appear to have been side by side in the west corner of the stable with the horses facing toward the river. I believe there were never more than two horse stalls, although the barn was sufficient size to stable four horses as advertised in 1893.
Carriage Bay
Since there were only two bays, the standard for that day would have been for the carriage bay to be open all the way up to the roof with the hayloft located directly over the stable. There would have been a fixed ladder up to the hayloft. The wagon would have pulled into the carriage bay and the hay unloaded from the top of the wagon to the hayloft. The classical arrangement for larger barns on working farms would have three bays with the hayloft on the opposite side from the stable since it is not desirable to locate a hayloft directly over the horses due to dust. The Carriage Bay was no doubt closed at the far end because the barn was built right up against the property line.
Roof Rafters & Tie-Beams
The roof is supported by 2x8 rafters on 24-inch centers. There are Tie-Beams (1 5/8-inch wide by 3 1/2-inch high) on 4-ft centers, connecting alongside the ends of alternate roof rafters over the left bay containing the hayloft. There are also similar looking tie-beams over the carriage bay, but these are spaced 6-ft on centers. In addition there appear to be purlins about a foot above the tie-beams. Presumably extra rigidity was required over the hayloft. The total height of the posts is 16-ft. with the tie-beams on the stable side about 9-ft above the original hayloft, and the tie-beams over the carriage bay 1-ft higher but no purlins. So the tie-beams on both bays were actually somewhat above the bottom ends of the rafters. A separate ceiling joist system had to be constructed in the attic when the barn was converted, and the joists are tied to the roof rafters on the opposite side from the tie-beams.
The Forebay
The forebay was added later and not part of the original barn. We know this to be a fact, because we found the original outside wall consisting of vertical 11-inch planks, covered over behind the 12-ft forebay. Our findings suggest it was added as part of a major expansion undertaken by Robert Eastburn around 1888. [Dating the Livezey Barn]
The forebay provided shelter for the animals. It also added 12x40 ft. of floor area to the second level along with a dormer with an outside double door. Storage height is limited under the dormer so this part of the hayloft probably served mainly for offloading hay. Additonal capacity was achieved by adding a partition completely separating the original hayloft from the open space in the carriage bay. This partition (5 1/2-inch by 3/4-inch T&G) extended all the way up to the roof, thereby maximizing the amount of hay that could be stored over the original hayloft.
Scenario (Revised January 2006)...
The addition of the forebay permitted unloading hay directly from the outside through a new upper level door. Hay could be dragged over the dropdown into the original 20x24 area over the stable where it was stored. Construction sequence on the carriage side is less certain. Today there is an upper level floor extending over the entire 20x24 carriage bay and with the same elevation as the floor in the forebay ---the floor in the original 20x24 hayloft over the stable is 15-inches lower. There exists over the carriage bay side what appears to be a construction joint dividing the 24-ft length floor into two parts, 15-ft (NW end) and 7.5-ft (SE end) next to forebay. My guess is that the upper floor of the forebay was built 7.5-ft into the original carriage bay, while the remaining 15-ft in front of the horse stalls remained open all the way up to the roof. There was a large window near the top of the NE gable. It's possible that the wall separating the old hayloft from the open space above the carriage bay was added at the same time, because the 7.5-ft shelf extending partway over the original carriage bay would still permit loading and unloading from inside the barn if needed. At the time the forebay was added, the carriage doors were shifted to the front of the forebay, and maintained at the same height as the original door. Sometime later the remaining 15-ft was floored and the stairwell built along the NW end of the barn
At the time the forebay and dormer were built, it might have been deemed advisable to add the steel cable to reinforce the original timber frame ---steel cables were not normally used in new barns.
The Steel Cable
The steel cable (today completely hidden from view) is 24-ft in length, and located between the two bays. It is anchored at each end between the two center posts, one on the 40-ft rear (NW end) and the other on the 40-ft front (SE end) of the original barn. The cable is parallel to the river at a height of roughly ten feet above the original ground floor. It does not extend into the forebay. Bill Welch described how in the 1930s you had to step down to the room over the stable. As expected the cable is exactly centered on the posts. It is positioned vertically about 2-inches above the floor level of the original hayloft and about 4-inches below the underside of the floor beams over the carriage bay. Today, the 2nd floor over the half the house nearest the river (the carriage bay) is 15-inches higher than the floor over the half of the house away from the river (the stable), and there are two wooden steps between the floor levels.
It was only when we recently opened up the ceiling for an electric installation that we were able by trial and error to guess the location of the hidden steel cable and by probing along the side of the post to verify its location. The results of our search are shown on a freehand sketch drawn to scale in order to reconcile the dimensions.
Wooden Floors
Present day wooden floors are different in the different parts of the second floor. The original floor over the carriage bay still exists and the surface of the floow remains the same as it was when first installed. The original floor planks over the forebay still exists. The tongue-and-groove floor installed on top of the planks looks old and may have been part of a double floor.
- Floor over the carriage bay: old 4 3/4 to 5 inch wide (original floor), tongue and groove, laid parallel to river. Floor beams have not yet been observed.
- Floor over the forebay: old 2 1/2 inch wide tongue and groove (perpendicular to river), rests on 11 1/8-in wide and 7/8-in thick floor planks (laid parallel to river). These planks are supported by 4 3/4-in by 3-in floor beams, which are in turn mounted on large square 6x6 beams on 10-ft centers over the left bay. There are a total of only 4 each 6x6 beams because there is no such beam at the mid-point over the carriage side of the forebay. Apparently in order to maintain headroom for the carriage, the floor planks were simply installed closer together. Floor beams on the carriage side are about 14 1/2-in o.c. versus 24-in or more on the stable side of the forebay. The 6x6 beams were installed on a slope (roughly 8-in drop over the 12-ft length from the original front of the barn to the front of the forebay) and the floor in the forebay, the bottom of the doors to the closets, etc. was all built at about the same slope.
- Floor over the horse stalls: modern hardwood 2-inch tongue and groove (perpendicular to the river), over original floor 4 7/8 inch tongue and groove (parallel to river), rests on floor beams 2 3/4 to 3 inches wide by 8 7/8 inch deep (perpendicular to river).
- Floor over abandoned 36-inch stairwell to floor over carriage bay: plank width varies 4 1/2 inch to 4 7/8 inch, tongue and groove (parallel to river)
The Hayloft
Bill Welch identified five major features of the second floor: 1) large front room, 2) large rear room, 3) hayloft over the forebay, 4) steel cable, 5) step-down between two rooms. It's easy to visualize based on his description.
On the second floor starting at the top of the stairs [north corner of the barn] you crossed a
- large open room walking east [actually southeast]...
- Toward the hayloft part, then when you got to the hayloft you did a "180" to the right and there was...
- A big step-down ---sounds like the floor is continuous from the front room into the hayloft...
- Into a big open room where there was an open shaft down to the horse stalls, and there was...
- A big wire cable in there [24-ft cable parallel to the river between the two bays and at a height of about ten feet above the ground floor]. Bill Welch was in effect describing two rooms separated by a wall, where the floor of one is higher than the other. The wall was undoubtedly the same partition we see in the attic today, separating the two bays. It obviously was built at the same time as the forebay, and extended at least from the top of the stable to the underside of the roof. It consisted of 5 1/2-inch wide tongue and groove boards 3/4-inch think, and was nailed to an old looking beam measuring 2 3/4-in wide by 4-in high, mounted at the same height and alongside and at the same height as a carriage bay tie-beam.
Hay Drop & Hoist
Near the two horse stalls there was a hay chute from the ceiling above the ground floor. It was used as a hay drop, and still existing (in 1983) above this opening is a large wheel mounted under one of the rafters. There are additional pulleys mounted an equal distance out from the ridge line on several rafters and a wooden frame mounted across two tie-beams directly opposite the wheel on the other side of the roof ridge.