Fidel Baker Barn

Address:

1355 Barnard Road, Marshall, NC 28753

Year Built: 1920 to 1930

Historic Owners: Fidel Baker, Major Marler, Bill Stanton

Description:

Fidel and Laura Baker began their family on upper Big Pine Creek but later moved to the Walnut/ Barnard community where they completed their family of fourteen children. Also known as the Major Marler barn, and more recently owned by the late Bill “Bro Rat” Stanton, this barn is the only one of the unique monitor roof barns of this township that is outside of the Big Pine Creek valley, and is on the east side of the French Broad River. In addition to the monitor roof, it has the signature diagonal lattice work and milled lapped siding boards. Unlike the other monitor roof barns, it also has small triangular strips of wood in the V-grooves of the metal roofing, perhaps as reinforcement for the nailing, but very unusual and never seen before. This detail adds credence to the speculation that this style barn was built from a set of mail-order barn plans. As a livestock barn, it has four stalls of sawn framed lumber, and was adapted to air-cure burley tobacco after 1920. The adjacent smaller barn is a general purpose building serving many functions.

Historic Use: livestock

Type of Construction: Sawn lumber and Stud Frame

Siding Materials: Milled Boards, Lattice, and Other

Roof Shape: Monitor

Roofing Materials: 3-V metal

Roof Framing: Milled rafters

Foundation: Wood sills on rock piers

Species of Wood: Chestnut and Various Other

Hinges: Commercial Metal

Fasteners: Wire nails

Additional Features:

Outbuildings: another barn sits adjacent to this large barn, built later and now used as a storage building and office. Various other small outbuildings are on this property.

NOTE: The information above is an abridged list. For the full unabridged list (complete details), please download the PDF of the Data Form above.