Brick-End Decorated Barns

Brick-end decorated barns are among the finest classics of rural American architecture. In southern and central Pennsylvania, these barns were very expensive to build. Their brick ends were constructed with designs formed by the gaps, or mortises, in the brickwork. These gaps served a function by providing ventilation and some natural lighting inside the barn. The walls, often sixteen inches thick, were carefully constructed, because any miscalculation in the placement of the mortises weakened the barn's structure. The brick end designs had to be kept simple, and the wheat sheaf or hour-glass and the diamond shape were the two most popular designs.

Kutztown, Pennsylvania · United States