Visit our Online Flea Market!

July 25, 2013


Happy Thursday!  (There's absolutely no reason to
celebrate Thursday except that it just feels good.)
 
Another thing that makes me feel good - painted barns.  Driving through
the countryside these days you see fewer and fewer old barns, especially
those that have been painted with advertisements.
 
A very wise saying.
  
 The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company is credited with painting barns to advertise their products in 1890.  As automobiles became more popular at the beginning of the 20th Century, companies realized the benefits of using barns as an advertising medium - they were the precursors to the modern billboard. 
 
 
By the early 1960s over 20,000 rural barns in 22 states were advertising
Mail Pouch Tobacco.  Most of the barns were painted by Harley Warrick.
 
  
 




Even though the old barn on the right has a new paint job
advertising Meramec Caverns, I prefer the barn on the left with
the old paint job - at the top it states 'See Jessie James' Hideout!' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
Located on Highway 99 near Cottage Grove, Oregon, the ad on
this barn dates back to 1912 and is repainted from time to time.
Dr. Ray Vaughn Pierce founded the World Dispensary and made
his fortune in the patent medicine business from 1867 to 1880.


See Rock City barns are still plentiful throughout Tennessee,
Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama.


  
 

Like many people, I think it would be wonderful
to buy an old barn and convert it into a home.







Meggie Lynne


WSJ




Hmmmm . . . . I wonder how much it would cost to heat a barn . . . .

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory barn lane.  Have a happy Thursday!

9 comments:

  1. Those See Rock City barns are in my area! I remember seeing many of them when I was growing up.

    I think it would probably be very expensive to heat a barn!:-) It would really be a place with character, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My husband says that the only way he would heat a barn is if we allowed the animals to sleep indoors in the winter! He grew up on a farm in Maryland and has too many memories of milking cows early in the morning before catching the school bus and he insists their barn was as cold inside as it was outside. I still think it would be lovely! -- Jan

      Delete
  2. My mom and her husband are converting an old feed mill in Nebraska into a residential and retail space. They don't intend to live in it, but hope to rent it out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet it will be beautiful when they're finished with the conversion. They shouldn't have any trouble finding a renter - it would be so much fun to live in a barn loft. Give them my best regards for taking on such an awesome project. -- Jan

      Delete
  3. Oh Jan, I love these pics, here in Italy, there isn't painted barns! Baci Cristina

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful painted barns - love those old advertisements! I was thinking the very same thing - how expensive it would be to heat! But if you can afford to make over an old barn, I suppose you can afford to heat it, too! So beautiful. xo

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think they look great. I could imagine looking out for the next one on long car journeys of yesteryear.

    ReplyDelete
  6. don't worry. it's probably just a summer residence or it's location is in an area with no minus degrees.

    ReplyDelete