The Geometry of The Park-McCullough House Brackets

I have not measured nor carefully checked the brackets for their construction. The House is not open during this time of the corona virus. I will go another time.
The architect's perspective drawings of the House are part of the House' collection. I am curious to see if the bracket design is visible, and whether working drawings for the house exist.
I have heard that a mock-up of the bracket may exist. By June I hope to examine it.

I would like to understand how the design for the bracket evolved.
The shape was well known. It is one variation of the standard shapes used in classic architecture. Here it is in Plate I from Asher Benjamin's The Country Builder's Assistant, 1797, Greenfield, MA.  F is a cima recta molding; D , E, I and K are the reverse: ogee moldings. ( D  and E have quirks; E has an astragal. K has a bead.)

Did a joiner suggest the Park-McCullough variation to the builder, the architect? Or did the architect, possibly his draftsman, draw it for the others?  Did they build a mock-up and improve upon it?

 Here's Edward Shaw conferring with his builders, from the frontispiece of his pattern book published in 1854, 10 years before this house was built.

I wrote blog posts about him here:
https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2012/02/edward-shaw-uses-tools.html
and here:
https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2019/12/english-construction-tools-1669.html

I've written about the House and its Barn being 'built to the weather'. Start here: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2008/06/oirginal-green.html.

Corn Cribs for the Indiana Barn Foundation Workshop and Keynote

July 19-20, 2019, I will give a workshop and the keynote address on Practical Geometry for the Indiana Barn Foundation at the Oakwood Retreat Center in Selma, Indiana.
Their website is : http://www.indianabarns.org/




The picture they used for their announcement is the one I use on my website: It's a farm house north of Boston built about 1830 which was designed using a wonderful combination of circles and squares. I hadn't planned to include it in the talk but now think, of course, I will.

One post about this house is here: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2014/09/how-to-construct-square.html

I might have chosen this picture of my corn crib as it is a barn out-building - and because it is red!

My post about the corn crib here: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2018/09/a-corn-crib-seen-as-trapezoid.html

2 more corn cribs will be part of the lecture and probably the workshop.
They are from different construction traditions in different parts of the States. utilitarian buildings, built without frill, their forms easy to understand and read. They all use geometry differently.


The front of the Knight corn crib in Flatbrookville, Sussex County, NJ, shown here, is one of 3 HABS photographs of the crib. taken in 1969.

This is the quote which accompanies the photographs and drawings.
"Within this farm group that developed between 1826 and 1910, two significant structures are the corn crib and hog barn. The corn crib is an excellent example of early corn cribs in the Delaware River Valley, featuring a frame that is hewn and pegged."
This corn crib in New Jersey is therefore about the same age as mine in Vermont; they are not the same.


Here are the HABS drawings.

 It is so different from  my Vermont corn crib that if the sides did not slant I would have thought it just a shed.

The layout is governed by its width. The posts are placed  by 2 red squares and the arc of the squares' diagonals.
The same sized  2 red squares and the arc of the diagonal determine the height of the crib and its roof.
A crew could lay out the plan on site with twine,
then layout the section of the crib on a framing floor with twine,  cut the frame and assemble it on site.



The slope of the walls is set by the square: the sills - noted in red - are located inside the lower corners of the square, the mid-plates - also red - are located on the outside of the upper corners. the slope continues up to the height of the upper square.  The red line on the right indicates that the height of the wall is divided in half by the center girt.

 The crib design could have begun with a line and its perpendicular. The line could be the width; the perpendicular could have been one wall. Then with twine the arcs - in red - could have located the posts - also in red.

The upper brace in the section falls on the point where the diagonals crosses the arcs of the side of the square - noted in red. 
I have seen this only once in New England. The center brace is on the line of the squares.
The lower brace is not located on the arcs. Instead it is centered between the floor and the mid-brace.

To see the HABS photographs and drawings, type the name and location "Knight corncrib... " into your browser.

Corn Crib as Geometry

A corn crib.
Little. 17 ft by 21 ft , about 18 ft to the peak.
New roof, south facade, and paint: c. 2015. Painting on going.
New concrete blocks for piers; old  concrete piers formed in wicker baskets.
Moved, maybe by oxen.
Door relocated for easier access on foot. The main door was on this elevation, about 3 ft above grade, ideal for access from a wagon.

This south wall was rotting away.
The corn crib deserved better.
During the repairs we found that it is timber framed, scribed, the main framing beams hewn, others cut with a sash saw.
It has log rafters. and may predate the c. 1810 house.





The scribe marks are similar to others found in the neighborhood - a common framer? Or a common teacher of corn crib builders?

Click on the photographs to enlarge them and read 'II', 'IIII', and 'III' on the posts and the beams. 'III' shows how water in that joint wore it away. 

I measured it - the width, length and height; the size of the posts and beams, and their locations; the roof pitch, the slant of the walls. I drew it up and checked my notes for clarity. 



The plan and elevation are below. The sides were for corn, the center aisle for work, the back (lower) section for grain, tools, equipment.

The walls slope out to shed the rain and snow, and to keep the corn from locking in place. The beam running below the beam at the eaves supports the floor of the small loft above the back storage section. There is a ladder built into the wall for access.

This is a normal corn crib for this section of the Hudson River water shed where New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont meet.
It does not seem to be the usual way corn cribs are built in other parts of the country.  I plan to look more carefully.

How I 'found' the geometry:
Note: the geometry is right there. It does not need to be found. I need to recognize it!
Looking at the  floor plan I could see the posts in the upper section forming a square. I added the diagonal and then using the diagonal as a radius I swung an arc. It landed on the lower left corner of the crib.
This is a simple easy plan. The elevation should be as simple.
I tried a square based of the width of the floor (about 17 ft. wide). It didn't quite fit.
I tried a square based on the width of the walls as they meet the roof  (about 18 ft. wide). Again, not good enough.

The utilitarian corn crib's frame needed to be as straightforward as its plan. The geometry tell the carpenter where to put his frame - exactly. Not within  4-5 inches.  He will have timbers laid out on a framing floor. He will want lines (chalk lines or taunt twine) that tell him position, lengths, mortises.  He needs no frills here.

This is when I have a cup of coffee, clean up the office, walk to the mailbox. And think, "The carpenter began with the height of the corn crib equaling its width. He put the loft floor at half the height of the crib."  I come back to try something else, experiment, play. "What if I drew the 'square' using the angled walls? Why not?"

It works. The Lines cross above and beside the framing members. The trapezoid ends below the ridge telling the framer where to cut his joints on the rafters so they will lap each other. The side braces (dashed line) are easily located.
The Lines on the framing floor will be beside the posts and beams, just as they are outside the edge of the plan.
The Lines needed to erect the crib are as minimal as those needed to layout the floor.