Chevraux-Chamber’s Place

History

Stan Chevraux remembers his father buying the quarter this barn sits on in the 1950s. His father called it the Chamber’s Place. The barn was part of a very lovely yard and a strikingly beautiful house, which was moved shortly after purchase of the property. The main barn had a side for draft horses and a side for milking cows. Attached to the west side of the barn exist an outside area for the cows, a few storage sheds, and a chicken coop. Later in the life of the barn, the use of the barn changed and all of the stalls were taken out and large timbers were put in so that the lower level of the barn could be used for grain storage.

This barn used frame construction and platform framing. As well, it had trusses to support the roof, resulting in the gambrel style roof.

Chevraux, Stan. Personal communication. 7 Jun. 2016.

IMG_4272

This frame shows the western face of the barn and the outbuildings. The closest outbuilding is the chicken coop with a small room for storing feed and other supplies while the next outbuilding is an enclosed outside area for cattle that also has a small room for storage.

IMG_4274

Close up of the chicken coop with a small portion of the storage room seen on the far left of this frame.

IMG_4273

Remnants of nesting boxes.

IMG_4275

This frame shows the covered area for cattle with built-in storage on the west side of the building (the left side of the building where the small door is).

IMG_4276

View of the main barn. The windows are boarded up to keep grain inside and a ladder was installed in order to inspect grain. Both of these features are remnants from the time when the barn was used as a granary.

IMG_4212

View of the main barn from the south. The western side of the barn was used for horses while the eastern side was used for cows. There used to be a horse silhouette made out of strips of wood on the western door of the south facing side of the main barn (the door on the left of the broad face of the barn in this frame).

IMG_4214

The beams and the anchors for the steel wire, used to keep the building from bursting under the pressure of the grain, are visible in this frame.

IMG_4213

The painted number “36” is faintly visible. Numbering bins helps farmers keep track of their crop once it is stored in the granary.

IMG_4217

The hay hood and the hay track can be seen in this frame. The addition is also more clearly visible.

IMG_4225

One of the north doors. This one is for entry into the cattle side of the barn via the attached shed.

IMG_4221

Alterations were made to the entry so that grain could be stored inside of the barn.

IMG_4219

This frame was taken from the north-east entry door and it shows the view inside of the east side of the main barn.

IMG_4227

This frame shows the north side of the barn. Once again, you can see boarded up windows and anchors for the steel wire.

IMG_4229

The northern side of the main barn, of the cow shed, and of the chicken coop.

This frame shows where the main barn and the cow shed join. The stone foundation that supports the barn is also visible.

IMG_4270

This frame shows the view from the north side entry. The enclosed area to the right of the ladder has the remnants of the west horse stalls. The enclosed area has the other half of the horse stalls and the walkway between the two sets of stalls.

IMG_4269

The floor is a mixture of concrete, wood, and stone.

IMG_4241

The west horse stalls. The stall walls have been taken out and the area has been boarded up for grain storage. The mangers, one feed chute, and some left over grain can be seen in this frame.

IMG_4255

The view from the ladder looking up into the loft. The loft door in this photo is for the east end of the barn.

IMG_4244

Many steel braces, to keep the building from falling down, can be seen in this frame.

IMG_4249

The roof on this barn is a gambrel, meaning it has two slopes on each side of the roof. This is caused by the rafters that were used to construct the roof.

IMG_4251

One of the two chutes over the western horse stalls. This particular chute was seen in frame 19.

IMG_4246

The second chute heading into the western horse stalls. This chute is on the northern side of the barn.

IMG_4264

This frame shows the first floor, eastern set of horse stalls. The actual horse stalls would have started at the posts and ran back to the east wall. You can orient yourself with the knowledge that the tack holder in this picture runs east-west. As said earlier, the stalls were dismantled in order to create an open space for grain. The concrete floor has an indent, which was for drainage of excrement, leading us to conclude that the walkway between the two sets of stalls ran north-south. The door on the right edge of this frame used to have a horse decoration on it that was made out of cut wooden strips. The wall of timbers on the right side of this frame separates the two granaries and also the two sides of horse stalls.

IMG_4271

This frame is the view from the north of the backside of the main barn, covered cattle area, and the chicken coop.

IMG_4233

This frame shows where the main barn and the cow shed join. The stone foundation that supports the barn is also visible.

Location

52.787090, -111.946803                                             SE 15-44-14 W4

Characteristics

Barn Condition: Poor

Construction Date: Unknown but before 1920

Features: Hay hood, hay rack, one lightning rod

Roof Shape: Gambrel

Paint: Was painted red but has now worn off

Decorations: No visible names or decorations but there are granary numbers painted on the south side of the barn

Roof Covering: Wooden shingles

Siding: Wooden flush siding

Foundation: Foundation of field stone and concrete

One thought on “Chevraux-Chamber’s Place

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s