Product Description

A generously illustrated handbook for identifying and understanding structures that symbolize the region's unique cultural and historical landscape.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #421469 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 223 pages

From the Publisher
5 1/2 x 9 trim. 294 illus. 9 figs. Flexibound. LC 96-17230

About the Author
Thomas Durant Visser is Research Associate Professor and Interim Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Vermont.

Customer Reviews

Excellent as a reference work or as a handy field guide.
The following is an excerpt from a review in Vernacular Architecture Newsletter, Feb. 1999.

The outbuildings of rural dwellings have customarily received less attention than the dwellings themselves. The fields of architectural history and historic preservation have long focused on dwellings, for such reasons as their sheer abundance and the fact that they may have been repositories of the fanciest and trendiest architectural detail. But visitors to rural areas will often find that a farmstead's ensemble of outbuildings may overshadow the dwelling in size, number, or visual prominence. The outbuildings reflect past activities of people and animals, and connect the dwelling to the system of fields, fences, driveways, and other farmscape elements.

Thomas D. Visser, Associate Professor and Interim Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Vermont, recognizes that barns and other outbuildings are far more important than as mere picturesque elements of the rural landscape. From the massive barn to the lowly privy, "each has a story to tell." In his Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, Visser provides "clues for deciphering the many layers of history spread over the rural landscape... to help observers... realize the wonderful insights that can spring from an understanding of the evolution of our rural heritage."

Visser's book may be used two ways, as a reference book and as a handy, portable field guide. It stands alone as a good concise history of New England farm buildings with an understandable concentration on barns, the most necessary structure of a farmstead other than the dwelling. The specific fieldwork for this volume took two years and was concentrated in areas preselected for their relevance. The fieldwork not only made possible this excellent guide to identifying, understanding, and appreciating farm buildings, but recorded a dwindling cultural resource. Visser has for years encouraged the preservation of barns, building interest among their owners. This book, it is hoped, by increasing awareness of these often neglected structures, will advance the cause of their preservation.

The Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings will prove informative and entertaining to a wide audience, from agricultural historians to New England residents who haven't truly appreciated the value of farm buildings as cultural resources.

Old Barn Owner
Having just purchased an old barn, I found precious few resources to assist in gleaning a history. Visser's book was concise, informative, and a pleasure to read. It provides valuable insight to the development of agricultural styles, and valuable clues to dating the agrarian landscape. Excellent source.

Where Is Southern New England?
Despite many mistakes in the layout and composition of this little book, the author has done an admirable job of researching and presenting a dauntingly diverse subject, except for the inadequate photography. One imagines him spending many hours taking and cataloguing and captioning the numerous photos, which are essential to understanding the subject and its details. Too often, however, the camera is too far away or the photos are reduced to such small size that the reader comes away with an impression, rather than a clear idea. It's evident the book suffers from budgetary constraints, and in this instance those constraints have hurt badly.
A final complaint -- the title is misleading. Despite the inclusion of a few Connecticut tobacco barns, this is a guide to NORTHERN New England barns. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine barns are well represented.