Maryland

Smart Tobacco Barn, Huntingtown, Maryland (38.644101, -76.626779)

Primary Barn Felling Dates: Winter 1838/9

Site Master 1712-1838 (white oak) SBMDx1 (t = 12.21 MDZ7; 11.09 CRMDx1; 9.65 rickcbar).

Description of the Smart Tobacco Barn by Dennis Pogue:

The Smart Tobacco Barn consists of a 36’ N-S x 24’1” E-W gable-roofed structure, with sheds running along the north, south, and east walls, all of which are likely original. The barn was laid out on a cross-axial plan with a center aisle, with a transverse intermediate sill forming the south side of the 9-foot aisle. A double-door is centered on the east wall; much of the frame of the west wall has been replaced, so any evidence of a doorway there has been lost. Single-width doorways are centered on the north and south walls. The core of the barn is arranged in four 9’- bays, with 4’-wide rooms for hanging tobacco; the sheds are supported by hole-set posts set at an interval of roughly 10’, with joists and rails spaced to carry at least two tiers of tobacco sticks. The barn was constructed with heavy timber framing, using mortise and tenon joinery, with hewn and pit sawn material. All three transverse sills are joined to the long sills and posts with a clenched, double-tenon joint. The walls are studded on a 2’-interval, with remnants of riven clapboard siding surviving on the three intact walls of the core of the barn; interior rails are mortised to the posts running inside the studs to support the tobacco poles. A row of round tier posts runs down the center of the barn, at a 4’-interval to match the spacing of the rafters and the joists, with rectangular mortises to receive the ends of the poles. The roof frame consists of rafter pairs joined at the peak with a saddle notch and pegged, resting on flat false plates supported by the projecting joists. Each rafter pair is joined by three tiers of collars, half-lapped and nailed to the rafters. The bottom two collars are supported by a strut attached at the center of the joists, which notch around the lower collar and are half-lapped to the collar above. The collars accommodated up to three tiers of tobacco sticks; up to five tiers of tobacco could have been supported by the joists and wall rails.

Dendrochronological analysis has shown that the barn was constructed from timbers felled in the winter of 1838/9.

Worthington and Seiter 2024 "The Tree-Ring Dating of the Smart Tobacco Barn, Huntingtown, Maryland." Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory 2024/22.

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