The Grapevine Township of Madison County, North Carolina is a rugged land circumscribed by Bailey Ridge to the East, Sevenmile Ridge to the West, and the meandering uplifts of the Walnut Mountains, just a slightly smaller version of, and a hop,skip, and a jump away from, the great Bald Mountains that wander the North Carolina-Tennessee border to the north. Bull Creek, a major tributary of Ivy River, drains much of this beautiful countryside, a haven of small, upland farming clusters. Here, sometime in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century, a farmer named Mace built a lovely livestock barn. It was later adapted to burley tobacco as evidenced by the visibly altered roofline with its shallow angle that provided more room and increased storage capacity in the upper, or loft, area. Gene Rogers now owns the barn and the old homeplace, part of the rich heritage of this venerable piece of these ancient hills. A focal length of 28mm, wide-angle for certain, gave me the angle-of-view I wanted. An aperture of f/18 provided depth-of-field, and a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds at ISO 100, gave me an overall medium exposure. I don’t know if his name is really “Ed”, but it sure sounded like he said, “Of course”, as I walked by.
There is beauty in age – be it old barns or those of us old enough to remember Mr.Ed. For me, the weathered wood, disrepair and unique design perfectly placed in this serene setting leaves me wanting more. More of the history and stories of Mr. Mace. Thanks for the beautiful image and memories of old homeplaces.
No one can talk to a horse, of course, that is, of course, unless that horse is an offspring of the famous Mr Ed. You must have talked to him to get him to pose for you. This barn must have been a site when it was new. It looks like the original roof line was 45 degrees to match the zig-zag pattern going around the middle. There must have been quite a celebration when it was done.
So many lines; they all fit together nicely to make the shape of a barn which you photographed from a 45 degree angle to catch all it’s charm. You captured how the barn has aged beautifully and still has a purpose as a shelter and a reminder of how things were constructed before they were designed by computers. Thanks for sharing.
Howdy Don, love your overall composition and the way it set the barn in the environment. I would have love to compose little extracts of the exterior boards with the various lines and textures in B&W.
Mike D.
Don, I tried to post the following to your Image for the Asking blog this evening. It could not verify that I was not a robot so I thought I would send it to you via Facebook. I know you understand that I am not a robot! lol. I trust you are having a great week. “Beautiful barn, Don. I wonder how many iterations this barn has been through. It appears that it initially was a log barn laid up of at least five rows of logs. A low barn like that would have been primarily for livestock shelter. Since sawn lumber was scarce and expensive at the time the log barn was built it would seem likely that the sawn lumber sidewalls were built on top of the log walls at a later date with a steep roof for storing hay and then as you observed a third renovation to adapt the barn to tobacco farming. I would love to see the interior construction. It is hard to conceive how they might have used the old log wall for what is essentially a foundation for the later additions. I can’t help but think how beautiful this barn might be on a fall day with the leaves at peak color. I like your higher elevation point when shooting this. It minimizes any wide angle distortion and also gives a sense of the rolling hills where it is located.”
Good morning, Everyone. Thank you all for joining me for this conversation. It is a pleasure hearing from all of you, and especially so when the discussion is about the beautiful old barns and wonderful mountain farms of Madison County, North Carolina.
Dorsey, I hope you’ll forgive me for lifting your comments from our Facebook connection and posting them here. They were just so appropriate for our group’s comments, and I knew everyone would benefit from them as do I; but let me begin with Sharon Elaine.
Thank you, Sharon Elaine, for joining us. It’s always good to have you with us. I really appreciate your love of places and images like Mr Mace’s barn. It’s been difficult locating anyone who knows very much about the man or the family’s history in the community. Mr. Rogers, the current owner, is not related to the Mace family, but he does love the farm and its buildings. The home and barn are located in an isolated part of Grapevine on a road that ends back up on the mountain. We’re giving away secrets when we confess to remembering Mr. Ed, so we’ll have to conspire to keeps those secrets safe, and I’m with you; and I do appreciate your fine description of the beauty of this great old structure.
Hey Nancy T., I enjoyed talking with you on Friday and look forward to visiting on our way West in September. Thanks for drawing our attention to the original roof-line, and all of the other lines as well. I’m sure that Mr. Mace was quite pleased with the fine latticework he created to provide ventilation. It was quite beautiful and functional at the same time, and I feel certain that once the raisin’ was accomplished, there was, indeed, a joyful celebration of the accomplishment. I think maybe that Mr. Ed’s grandson was staying in place and waiting to see if I might come through with a carrot or an apple. I promised him one next time, which will probably be fairly soon.
Hi Michael. I hope you are well; it’s always good to hear from you and have your observations in the conversation. Thanks for your kind words and for your suggestions about where we might go once the wide image had been taken. Those wonderful old boards and the patterns and textures they provide could certainly keep anyone busy for at least a day. And B&W would be a perfect approach to all of them. If you’re ever in this part of the country, let me know and I’ll share this place with you.
Dorsey, it’s a good day when you share with us your keen eye and fine recollections; so, again, I hope you don’t mind my transposing your thoughtful words. This barn seems to have originally been a 4-stall stock barn with a shed roof on the opposite end and around the back side, with hallways leading through from all sides into the middle. It was likely converted to add additional room for burley tobacco between 1910-1930. On this visit, which was my first and only so far, it began raining shortly after we arrived; and I did not have a chance to go around to the far side to see if perhaps there had been a bank access to the upper floor, nor did we go inside, which I plan to do on my return to complete the work so that this structure can be included in the book. As always, your thoughts and comments are insightful and add to our appreciation and understanding of what we are seeing. I hope all is well with you.
Thanks, again, Everyone for helping me celebrate one more of the wonderful barns of Madison County and the beauty of this charming countryside. Enjoy the eclipse and the opportunity to photograph this awesome spectacle. Walk in Beauty.