Come see Tom O’Grady, a member of Ohio Humanities Speakers’ Bureau, give a talk on the legacy of barn architecture at Trinity Lutheran Church in Delta, Ohio!

Culture groups migrating from New England, Middle Atlantic states and from the South settled in various regions of Ohio, and their distinct farms and barns can be observed when travelling throughout the state. The barn builders have left an architectural legacy throughout rural Ohio that can help one understand much about the heritage of the region. The geographic distribution of the various barn types is due to routes followed into the state, geographical influences, or cultural affinities. In any case, one can identify regions settled by people of Pennsylvania German descent, those settled by migrants from the upland south, or those migrating to Ohio from New England by the type of barns and other buildings on farmsteads remaining on Ohio byways. These artifacts of timber frame construction house the remnants of Ohio’s primeval forests.