Show & Sale Barn
Bluegrass horse barns have also followed the folk trends in use of construction materials, some having been built originally of log, then frame, and brick, and a few even of stone. Today, while a few barns are simple prefabricated products of metal construction, the more substantial, more attractive, and more traditional horse barns are built either of frame or fireproof concrete block or a combination. Many horse farm barns continue the traditional Bluegrass designs, often featuring traditional cupolas, several in a row atop the larger barns, and dormers. Many horse barns are modern adaptations of traditional transverse crib barns which are ubiquitous on the Bluegrass landscape. Today, if not used as horse barns, most serve as tobacco barns.
During the Civil War era, White Burley tobacco farming came to be the single most profitable and most widely found cash crop across Kentucky. Consequently, the ubiquitous silhouette of the transverse crib tobacco barn stands today as perhaps the single most typical of the Bluegrass farm buildings. The typical Bluegrass transverse crib tobacco barn is of frame construction and almost invariably painted black. It has a driveway running from gable end to gable end, with partitions or cribs running along both sides. Transverse crib barns modified for horses utilize more elaborate and substantial construction materials and stylistic features than do those housing tobacco. Unlike the horse barns, tobacco barns are never ornate, but frugally built of plain lumber, and have fewer cribs or stalls. In addition, the sides of most Bluegrass tobacco barns have hinged vertical sections running from the foundation to just below the eaves; usually one or two boards wide, they are regularly spaced along the entire length of both sides of the barn. When opened periodically during the curing process, these hinged sections allow air to circulate and thus control moisture and heat and permit ventilation of the curing tobacco. Most tobacco barns also have roof ventilators, either built into the ridgeline of the roof, which is usually tin, or evenly spaced capped tube vents along the length of the ridgeline.
A considerable number of the Bluegrass version of these tobacco barns have additional wings extending to one or both sides, creating more storage space either to hang tobacco or for farm tractors and other equipment. A high percentage of Bluegrass tobacco barns also have an attached stripping shed, either a pitched roof lean-to or a flat roof rectangular frame box. Though there are other historic Bluegrass farm buildings, the transverse crib barn whether used for horses or tobacco is the most typical folk form, both historically and today.
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