Maryland

Longevity Farm Tobacco Barn, La Plata, Maryland (38.56368, -77.06001)

Primary Barn Felling Dates: Winter 1834/5, Summer 1834

Site Master 1730-1834 (white oak) LGMDx1 (t = 7.85 MDZ8; 7.63 HBPAx1; 7.51 CDMCx6).

Description of the Longevity Farm Tobacco Barn by Dennis Pogue:

The Longevity Farm Tobacco Barn is a heavy timber framed building, joined and raised in the traditional manner, with a gable-roofed main section measuring 32’ N-S x 24’ E-W in dimension, combined with an original earthfast shed 12’ wide running the length of the east wall. The main section of the barn is fully framed with heavy sills resting on what was likely a continuous brick foundation, anchored at the corners by substantial posts. Four pairs of principal posts divide the plan into three bays, with an 8’-wide center bay, flanked on the north and south by bays 12’ in width. The intermediate posts form a doorway at the center of each wall, spaced 8’-wide on the east and west and 4’-wide on the north and south. Transverse sills span between the doorposts on the east and west walls. The layout of the frame is symmetrically arranged with the rafters and joists aligned to divide the barn into 4’-wide rooms for hanging tobacco, which accommodated up to eight tiers of tobacco sticks. The collars provided supports for three tiers of tobacco to hang within the roof. Four levels of horizontal rails running between the wall posts are positioned at a roughly 3’6” interval, which correspond with a row of supports running down the center of the barn, to support poles spanning the building to carry tobacco sticks. In the two flanking bays, the supports consist of boards that rest on the ground and are attached to the joists, with brackets to carry the tobacco poles. The center bay is treated differently, with a substantial post mortised at the center of each of the interior sills, each of which has a series of four through- mortises, measuring roughly 4”-square and spaced to match the rails attached to the walls. Poles inserted into the mortises running north-south served as rests for three pairs of poles that spanned the building to carry tobacco sticks. Up to five tiers of tobacco could be suspended within the body of the structure.

Dendrochronological analysis has shown that the building was constructed from timbers felled in the summer of 1834 and the winter of 1834/5.

Worthington and Seiter 2024 "The Tree-Ring Dating of the Longevity Farm Tobacco Barn, La Plata Maryland." Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory 2024/21.

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