Barns I Have Known and Loved

Crunch! The monster machine stretched its neck, opened its huge jaws, bit off a chunk of the front corner, chewed it a little, and spit it out into the oversized dumpster. CRUNCH! Another bite… then another… and, as I sadly watched, in less than 20 minutes that barn–which took much effort for the Ira Shaver family to build in the early 1870s behind their home on Main Street, Dallas (now the Borough Building)–was gone. Only a few barns still stand in Dallas Borough or Dallas Township. More survivors can still be found in the outlying townships of the Back Mountain. 

However, during my growing up years InSide the Back Mountain, barns were plentiful. While it was true even then that professional farmers and family farms were dying out, barns still remained hidden in valleys, perched on hilltops, part of every small Back Mountain village. I read somewhere that 150 years ago, 85% of all residents of the USA lived on a farm. The farmers, carpenters, and laborers of the past three centuries were truly the foundation of the United States of America!

In July 1976, our country was in the midst of a great bicentennial celebration, awash in red, white, and blue. Eric Sloane was the artist-of-the-moment, recognized by the majority of Americans for his oil paintings and pen and ink drawings of nostalgic scenes and subjects. It was also the summer I officially began my journey as a professional artist with a “real” studio! I had studied art and/or taught art for eighteen years previously, but then began to paint every day, filling my studio with scenes of farms, farm animals, country roads, barns, covered bridges, and other imagery I had grown up with and always loved!

The Old Gas Pumps

Since I am just beginning the 50th anniversary year of my studio, I decided to revisit and reinterpret some of the locations and subjects of my past through old photos and old sketches! Artistically speaking, there are five main elements: line, shape, color, value, and texture. All paintings are just variations of these, sort of like the explanation Julie Andrews gave to the children about notes and songs in the movie classic, Sound of Music. These three paintings contain all five elements, but texture stands out most prominently. Barns are an extensive study in texture!   

In my childhood, every little village had a garage or a store with gas pumps. My grandfather owned an old garage in the village of Orange, and my dad was a mechanic his entire life. Old gas pumps, for me, are like meeting old friends! This barn stood in the village of Kunkle. Today only part of it remains, nearly hidden under brush and vines.

Hayfield Barn No. 2, Sheepfold

“Hayfield Barn No. 2, Sheepfold” was located on a back road near what has become Penn State’s Wilkes-Barre Campus and the Huntsville Golf Course. This particular barn is long gone.The nearby golf course barn still stands strong, although I prefer how it looked 50 years ago! Yet another Hayfield barn further down that road is sadly returning to nature.

On Route 118 west, one finds more barns, relics of the past. This house and barn was located in tiny Kyttle. Both are gone now, as well as the old store that stood nearby with its gas pump. The house was already abandoned when I snapped the Polaroid that morphed into this painting. I remember that morning as extremely quiet except for the hum of the cicadas and the passing of a few vehicles–a lot fewer than now. The barn suffered a slow demise, finally succumbing to a heavy snow load one winter. The silo still stands.

The Old Homestead in Kyttle

I treasure the barns still remaining InSide the Back Mountain. The large red barn perched above the intersection of 309 and Hildebrandt Road has seen several occupational adjustments through the years. In earlier days, sturdy cows grazed its pastures and sought shade and comfort in the ground floor of the structure. Later on, it became known locally as the Bus Barn as it guarded a fleet of school buses. When that contract with the Dallas School District ended, buses disappeared and baby evergreen trees emerged.  

The newly restored barn above Chase Corners makes my heart sing! That barn has been given new life through the equivalent of barn botox and plastic surgery! 

Is there a barn in your past? Do you remember the smell of the hay in the haymow? Were there gentle guernseys or holsteins or cows of some other kind and color? Memories can provide mini vacations into our past! Mine do!

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This article originally appeared in the September 2025 publication of InSide the Back Mountain.