A Dutch-Roofed Barn is a gable-roofed structure where the slope projects all the way down to the 1^st floor.

 

Animal Inn Barn, San Juan Valley, San Juan Island.  This barn has a remarkable spread: 60′ wide by 62′ long, with a height of 25′.  It is also noteworthy because there is no indication of a hay door or rail and trolley system.  The structure has log posts at 10′ on center, with milled lumber braces, beams, purlins, and roof joists.  The barn is part of an overall farm complex that consists of a house, chicken coop, milk house, and granary.

 

 

 

Gordon Buchanan Farm (New) Barn, San Juan Valley, San Juan Island.  Gordon Buchanan built this barn in the 1930s from recycled timbers and driftwood; allegedly he only had to purchase the hardware.  The timber-frame structure has bents that form four bays, with a central 26′ wide by 52′ long and 31′ high hay mow with two 16′ wide wings.  The sills are placed on stumps on top of field stones.  Entry is by means of a central sliding door and two side doors, all in the east gable.  There is a more recently-added small open shed on the northeast corner.

 

 

Coffer Barn, Orcas Island.  This barn was built in 1946 for Phil Coffer by a noted local builder, Mr. Hathaway.  The plan consists of a central, floor-to-ridge hay mow with stables on either side.  In addition to large doors on the northwest gable and a door leading to the northeast side aisle, there is a hay door and hay hood on the northwest gable.  The post-and-beam structure is oriented northwest-southeast, measures 60′ wide by 68′ long, and is 37′ high.

 

 

Burl [Byrle] Hall Farm Barn, Orcas Island.  Byrle M. Hall bought this property from Johann P. Legbandt in 1944, and allegedly built this barn as part of a government effort to encourage farming after WWII.  The roof is pitched steeply, extending all the way down to the ground floor.  Oriented north-south, the structure is 56′ wide by 46′ long and 37’6″ tall, and consists of a central floor-to-ridge hay mow flanked by stables.  Used as a dairy barn, it once had stanchions with a manure gutter in the concrete floor, as well as a hay rail and trolley, with a hay door in the north gable.

 

Hayton Farm Barn, Lopez Island.  The roof of this barn is odd: it is almost Dutch gambrel, because there is a slight lower-pitched roof on the ridge, but the lower slopes stretch down (with a slight alteration) to the ground floor on either side–and that’s why we’re classifying it as simply “Dutch.”  Built in the late 1930s as a dairy barn, the plan features a floor-to-ridge hay mow in the center flanked by open stalls on either side, where the stanchions used to be.   Oriented north-south, the structure measures 58’6″ wide by 60′ long, and is 28′ tall, and features a metal hay rail with hay door and hood on the south side.  (The construction date is uncertain; John C. Ringler purchased the land from Charles and Lydia Biggs in 1905, and then sold it to William Hayton in 1936; Hayton and his wife Nell resold it in 1942 to Henry and Lavinia Erb.  Because the date is estimated as the late 1930s, we are calling this the Hayton Farm.)

Nordstrom Barn, Crow Valley, Orcas Island.  Settled by Andrew Nordstrom in 1901, this quarter-section farm originally had pear and Italian plum orchards and prune-drying operations as part of the early Orcas Island fruit industry.  The Dutch-roofed, 40′ wide by 60′ long, 30′ high structure was used primarily for hay storage, with stanchions for milking dairy cattle.  It is listed on the Washington Heritage Barn Register.

 

 

Daniel B. Shull Farm Barn, San Juan Island.  When it was built in 1908 this barn was considered the largest and most modern on San Juan Island, with storage for 120 tons of hay.  Oriented north-south, and projecting perpendicular to the slope, this is a five bay timber frame barn.  The central hay mow is 30′ wide by 60′ long and 32′ high, with a steel hay rail and trolley.  The side bays are 18′ wide; those on the south had cow stanchions while those on the north had horse stalls.  There is also a 38′-wide by 18′-long extension to the main gable.  The farm also has a dwelling, granary(?), the foundation of a silo, and one of the few water towers on the island.