Agricultural and Domestic Outbuildings in Central and Western

OUTB OUTB OUTBUILDINGS OUTB OUTB UILDINGS IN IN CENTRAL CENTRAL & & WESTERN WESTERN KENTUCKY KENTUCKY 25
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Hemp House:
Hemp houses are generally one-and-a-half-to two-story masonry buildings,
which are square or rectangular in form. Their shape is somewhat
like a large smokehouse, however, hemp houses are not ventilated.
These buildings are usually divided into two floors. The loft
could be reached by an interior ladder stair. Use of these floors is
unclear at this time. Although hemp farming was quite common on
larger farms in antebellum Kentucky, there are very few remaining
buildings that were devoted solely to hemp processing. It is possible
that hemp farmers preferred to store hemp with grains and cattle.
Threshing Barns
One of the important tasks on the early farm was the threshing of
wheat to remove the hulls from the seed. This process occurred on a
threshing floor. Wheat was threshed on the floor in the central aisle
of a barn by beating it with flails or by walking horses over it. Mechanical
threshers were invented by the 1830s, but were not in common
use until the 1860s. Gentlemen farmers were the first to use
such mechanical tools in Kentucky.
The “Cutting Up Barn,” Auvergne, Bourbon County, 1842. This small
Granary and Threshing barn was completed the same year that owner Brutus
Clay purchased a mechanical threshing machine. Although the barn was
built so that it could handle manual threshing, Clay ultimately used it in
conjunction with a threshing machine. The thresher could have been housed
in one of the sheds and grain stored on the interior. The barn was also used
for fodder, thus the name “Cutting Up Barn”.
Hemp House, Fayette County,
Circa 1820-30.
Threshing, From R.W. Brunskill,
Traditional Farm Buildings of
Britain.