As our researcher works his way through the several townships of Madison County to achieve the mission of the Appalachian Barn Alliance ( to preserve the rural heritage of Madison County and surrounding areas through the documentation of the historical barn building traditions and the barns they represent), we will share one barn of each of the remaining townships on this page. As more barns are documented, that township will be moved to its own page. Each barn below has its township identified and you can click on the name to access the documentation which includes historical information, drawings of the barn, and photos. Our end goal is to document this rich heritage and save it on our website before the ravages of weather and time remove all traces of these remarkable southern Appalachian style barns.
SANDY MUSH Malachiah Reeves Barn MDsm001
Junction Hwy 63 & Reeves Home Rd.
Hot Springs, NC 28743
This log barn was built before the Civil War, as part of the original homestead, according to family tradition. Oral tradition also describes a Reeves man, likely the son of Malachiah Reeves, was present during the Civil War when Unionist raiders, perhaps George Kirk’s “Raiders”, were pillaging in the valley. To keep them from stealing his mule, he hid in this log barn with the mule to hide from the raiders. Read More
HOT SPRINGS Willows Barn MDhs0001
851 Boys Home Road
Hot Springs, NC 28743
This property has an important and historic role in Madison County, Hot Springs, western North Carolina, and the southern Appalachian region. The large brick house, built in the 1850’s, is unique in Madison County both architecturally and as a surviving antebellum structure used as a drovers’ inn and stock stand on the Newport, TN spur of the historic Buncombe Turnpike. The property is also significant as a pre-history archeological site. Read More
REVERE Jobe Ramsey Barn MDr0001
121 Chandler Cove Rd.
Marshall, NC 28753
This barn was built and owned by the Ramsey family. It was more recently known as the Joe Chandler barn, caretaken by Joe Chandler who lived across the road. A log building remains on the property and has the form and characteristics of a flue-cured tobacco barn. It has since been used as a dwelling and for storage. The property was once owned by the Catholic Church and includes the Chapel of the Little Flower, still on the property. Read More
GRAPEVINE Maude Boone Barn MDg001
675 Fisher Branch
Marshall, NC 28753
Built by Bascombe Silvers, owner, in the 1880s with local carpenters Bob Hylton and Dolph Coates. The metal roof replaced the split shingle roof around 1940, the added roof elevation extension was after WWII. The farm had a “worm fence”, of split chestnut rails, the bottom rail was laid off on new moon according to tradition, to avoid rotting. Read More
NORTH MARSHALL Metcalf-Price Barn MDnom0001
20 N. Long Branch Road
Marshall, NC 28753
The design of this barn may be very early use of diagonal siding. Also, the lattice work on the side walls is of oak lattice instead of the typical soft-wood lattice. Of other interest is that Emory Metcalf, an earlier owner, was involved in donating or selling a hewn log-crib livestock barn to the Roper Mountain Science Center Read More
EBBS CHAPEL Ernest English Barn MDe0001
352 Northern Orchard Drive
Mars Hill, NC 28754
This farm is a high elevation farm at 3690 feet and is typical of the Upper Laurel valley in its small amounts of tillable land and rocky soil. Some unique features include cradles, mangers or hay racks of split wood stakes, and a unique square wooden chute to drop ears of corn to the stalls below.
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