Linden Farm Barn Restoration
Near Dickerson, MarylandThe Linden Farm, owned by Montgomery County, MD, is leased to the Sugarloaf Citizens Association for use as a Historic Agricultural Center. The site comprises four barns, which by the end of the 20th century had fallen into various states of disrepair.
FHTC was contracted to perform repairs on the following:
The first owner of the farm, a Mr. White, built the bank barn in the last decade of the 19th century. Repairs to this barn including lifting the 89-foot x 47-foot barn off its foundation and replacing all the bottom sills and several of the top plates and “side trees”; replacing numerous timbers – some measuring more than 26 feet long; removing and salvaging all exterior siding and replacing deteriorated material with new siding milled at our own sawmill; and installing a new galvanized steel standing seam metal roof. The restoration of this barn alone required more than 18,000 board feet of timber and boards.
Mr. White also constructed a corn crib on the property which subsequent owners expanded into a machine shed with an addition. We replaced the timber sills and vaious framing members, installed a new foundation and new siding over most of the structure, and gave it a new standings seam galvanized roof.
After the Great Depression the farm went through a period of growth including the constuction of a 28 foot x 90 foot long loafing shed attached at a right angle to the original bank barn. Neglect all but erased that building and only about 1/3 of it was still standing by the time we began repairs. We reconstructed the collapsed framing and supplied and installed all new floor joists, flooring, siding, and roofing. This loafing shed accounted for most of the balance of the 26,000 board feet of timber and lumber that went into the Linden Farm restoration work.
Another mid-20th century construction was the gothic style dairy barn. Constructed of nailed-together laminated arches, it is said to be one of only three such barns still standing in this country. We performed various structural repairs, including replacing major sections of some of the arches, repairing roofing and flashing to stop water infiltration from destroying this historic landmark, and coating the entire roof with an elasotmeric paint to extend it's life by decades.
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