Every plank has a story

BARN STORIES

Every Artis Wall plank becomes its very own piece of American history. Find your story below with the code stamped on the back of each plank.

 

CATTLE FEED BARN

CODE: 982418  |  BUILT: c.1815  |  LOCATION: FALMOUTH, KY

This barn was located in Falmouth, Kentucky, Pendleton County. It was used as a feed barn for cattle. Inside the barn was a feed pen constructed of round, wormy chestnut wood logs. The estimated age is around 200 years old, indicated by the saddle-notched logs. Logs were primarily saddle-notched during construction prior to 1850, versus the more current and traditional chinked or dove-tailed notching which provides more stability.

DANIEL MILLER’S BARN

CODE: 022017  |  BUILT: 1911  |  LOCATION: LAWRENCE COUNTY, PA

Your Artis Wall planks came from an Old Order Amish barn dating back to 1911 in Lawrence County, PA. Lawrence County is located just an hour North of Pittsburgh, however the atmosphere of the big city and the Amish community could not be more opposite. The county is dense with a population of around 2,000 Old Order Amish persons, making it the third largest Amish community in the United States. Old Order Amish are the strictest, and most traditional of all the Amish sects. They have shunned all use of modern-day technology and innovation. This specific barn was reclaimed and re-sided all in the same week with help from the entire community. When it was first raised, the Miller barn was used strictly as a dairy but today houses just around 4-6 cows, enough to provide milk for the Miller family. Apart from the cows, the barn is also a home to several horses, as they provide many uses to the Amish. Draft horses are used to perform farm work, such as pulling plows, sleds and more. The Amish also use horses to pull their buggies as their main mode of transportation.

DAIRY BARN

CODE: 201651  |  BUILT: 1902  |  LOCATION: SMICKSBURG, PA

Your Artis Wall planks came from an old Amish dairy barn in Smicksburg, Pennsylvania. This dairy barn is over 100 years old dating back to 1902. The barn was owned by an Amish family as a shelter for livestock where they milked their dairy cows. They sold the milk produced in this barn to local stores, restaurants and creameries as their source of income.
Smicksburg is a small borough located in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. It is home to a large population of Old Order Amish. As you drive through Smicksburg you may see an old Amish farmer plowing his field using a horse or Amish school kids playing in the yard of their one room school house. The center of town is filled with quaint Amish owned bulk food stores, quilt shops, restaurants and more. The Amish invite English people into their community to purchase authentic Amish goods and home grown foods.

RUDY’S BARN

CODE: 201631  |  BUILT: 1906  |  LOCATION: AMISH COUNTRY, OH

Your Artis Wall planks came from a barn dating back to 1906 in the heart of Amish Country, Ohio. This barn belongs to an Amish farmer named Rudy. The Amish came to America from Europe in search of religious freedom, mainly settling in Pennsylvania in the late 1700’s. Throughout the years, various orders of Amish spread into Ohio and settled into what is now known as, ‘Amish Country’. Ohio has become home to the largest Amish community in the country with around 36,000 people of Amish descent. This barn was reclaimed by use of a traditional Amish frolic. A frolic is a practice in the Amish community in which all of the local men and boys donate a couple hours of their time to help a neighbor complete a project, typically the building of a new structure. Every plank that was reclaimed from this barn was immediately replaced by an Amish community member, leaving the barn the same way we found it.

HORSE BARN

CODE: 201613  |  BUILT: 1891  |  LOCATION: 201631

Your Artis Wall planks came from an old horse barn in Paris, Kentucky on Cane Ridge Rd. Paris, KY was named Paris by Lawrence Protzman in 1790 to honor the French assistance during the American Revolution. This town is home to many old buildings and structures which have been preserved and restored over the years. The Shinner Building, built in 1891 and located on Main Street, is listed by Ripley’s believe It or Not as the world’s tallest three story building.
In this particular case the owner of the barn asked us to take the entire barn down because it could no longer support itself and he wanted to build an entirely new structure. Below is a quick clip of us collapsing the structure to be reclaimed.

THE HASS’ FARM

CODE: 032017  |  BUILT: 1880  |  LOCATION: PLYMOUTH, OH

Your Artis Wall planks came from a barn dated back to 1880, located in Plymouth, OH. Plymouth is a small village located in Northern Ohio, with a population of only around 1,900 people. The area was first settled in 1815 and was originally named Paris. The prime location of the settlement along a military highway caused rapid growth. In 1818, the community had enough settlers to establish themselves as a village. The name of the village was changed to Plymouth in 1838 due to several other communities in Ohio named Paris. Today, the barn is owned by the Hass family. There are parts of the barn that have been rebuilt potentially due to a heavy storm or tornado. It was filled with beautiful hand hewn timbers. Hand hewing is when carpenters used a broad axe to shape a fallen log into a beam. Hewing was an extremely common practice in the late 1800’s when building structures, as they did not have machinery that we have available today to make beams.  

TOBACCO BARN

CODE: 042017  |  BUILT: C.1863  |  LOCATION: LEXINGTON, KY

Your Artis Wall planks came from an old tobacco barn in Lexington, KY dating back to the Civil War. Lexington is the second largest city in Kentucky and is located in the heart of the states ‘Bluegrass’ region. Tobacco barns are engraved in the rich history of Kentucky. In the height of the tobacco industry, these barns popped up in states where the climate was perfect for curing tobacco. Each barn was built with a sophisticated ventilation system that was vital to the drying process. The barns were typically longer than they were wide and the side walls had long narrow vents to allow for ventilation. Today, if you drove through Kentucky you would not see as many tobacco barns as they had during the boom of the tobacco industry. But you would see the last of the barns that remain with beautiful, colorful quilt patterns painted on them. These were placed as part of the ‘Quilt Trail’, which was set in place to preserve historic barns and give tourists a beautiful trail to follow.

DANVILLE BARN

CODE: 052017  |  BUILT: C.1830  |  LOCATION: DANVILLE, OH

Your Artis Wall planks came from a barn located in Danville, Ohio. The barn dates back to the 1830’s. Danville is located in Central Ohio, in Knox County. The Village of Danville is currently home to around 1,000 people. It is affectionately known as “The Gateway to Amish Country” due to its close proximity to Ohio’s Amish Country. The barn was used to house farm equipment and livestock for the farm owners. This particular style of barn is known as a bank barn, they are most popular in the North Eastern United States due to the hilly landscape. A bank barn is a style of barn that is easily accessible from ground level, on two separate levels. These barns are typically built into the side of hills or banks. Both the upper and lower levels could be accessed from ground level making it easy to unload hay on the top level and house livestock on the bottom level.

SNOW FENCING

CODE: 062017  |  BUILT: NA  |  LOCATION: MONTANA

Your Artis Wall planks were reclaimed from snow fencing in Montana. These large fences keep the roads and railways clear of snow by creating large snow banks on the windward side of the road. By slowing down wind speed these fences allow the heavy snow to fall right behind them, creating a buildup, or bank, of snow. They catch most of the snow before it reaches the roads, keeping the roads safe during the winter. The transportation research board estimates that over $2 billion per year is spent on mechanical snow and ice removal and that using mechanical methods to remove snow and ice is 100 times more expensive than using snow fencing. So not only did your snow fencing save lives, but it also saves the US money, and helps our environment by not using trucks and other methods which have high carbon emissions.

DAIRY BARN

CODE: 072017  |  BUILT: 1800’S  |  LOCATION: GROVE CITY, PA

Your Artis Wall planks came from a dairy barn dating back to the late 1800’s in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Grove City is located about 60 miles North of Pittsburgh, and it is the third largest city in Mercer County, with a population of around eight thousand people. Dairy farms are a prominent fixture in Pennsylvania’s agricultural history. The state is ranked fifth in total milk production annually. There are around seven thousand active dairy farms in Pennsylvania to date. The dairy barn that your Artis Wall planks came from may look different than dairy barns you see today. This dairy barn was used to house a small number of cows, and provide a parlor to milk the cows by hand. Today, Pennsylvania dairy farms have an average herd size of 78 cows and are slowly transitioning to robotic milking machines.

GRAIN STORAGE BARN

CODE: 082017  |  BUILT: 1955  |  LOCATION: CONEWANGO, NY

This barn was located on the historic Amish Trail through New York, known by tourists as the Conewango Valley. It was used for grain storage and also was home to a number of horses throughout the years. The barn stood as it is in these photos for just over 60 years.

SNOW FENCING

CODE: 201612  |  BUILT: NA  |  LOCATION: WYOMING

Your Artis Wall planks were reclaimed from snow fencing in Wyoming and most likely have saved the lives of numerous people traveling on I80, I90, I25, and other major roads in the state. These large fences keep the roads clear of snow by creating large snow banks on the windward side of the road. By slowing down wind speed these fences allow the heavy snow to fall right behind them, creating a buildup, or bank, of snow. They catch most of the snow before it reaches the roads, keeping the roads safe during the winter. The transportation research board estimates that over $2 billion per year is spent on mechanical snow and ice removal and that using mechanical methods to remove snow and ice is 100 times more expensive than using snow fencing. So not only did your snow fencing save lives, but it also saves the US money, and helps our environment by not using trucks and other methods which have high carbon emissions. The snow fencing used to make your Artis Wall is an average of 15 years old. Now you are adding another stage to these plank’s story by letting us recycle it for you to create a beautiful accent piece on your wall!

TOBACCO ROAD

CODE: 201627  |  BUILT: 1800’S  |  LOCATION: EDMONTON, KY

Your Artis Wall planks came from an old tobacco barn in Edmonton, Kentucky. Until the late 1920s, Kentucky produced more tobacco than any other state. Today the state ranks second in tobacco production to North Carolina. Native Americans used to smoke tobacco for medicinal purposes, often as a pain reliever during labor. Edmonton, Kentucky, was first surveyed during the Revolutionary War and quickly became farmland that focused on the production of corn, wheat, oats and tobacco. The tobacco industry accounted for half the agricultural income of Kentucky farmers by 1860. In Kentucky, much of the agricultural productivity came from farms employing slave labor. By 1900, one-third of Kentucky farmers were landless tenants, and the national farm protests began. After the Great Depression, the farm population decreased by 76%, and many tobacco farmers left their farms to find work in the city, or they switched crops after the health hazards about tobacco discouraged consumers to buy the plant. The tobacco barn your Artis Wall planks were reclaimed from was most likely owned by a small family who struggled with poverty during this economic crisis and left their farm behind to pursue more industrial jobs.

WIDMAN FAMILY FARM

CODE: 201701  |  BUILT: 1860’S  |  LOCATION: VILLAGE OF REPUBLIC, OH

Your Artis Wall planks came from a barn dating back to the 1860’s. The barn was located in the small Village of Republic, Ohio established in 1834. Located in Northern Ohio’s, Seneca County, the Village, whose border lies around a territory of only 551 acres, has a population of just around 550 people. In 1841, Republic received its first rail line from Sandusky, which led to its birth as a booming trade center. Unfortunately, when the rail was reconstructed to bypass Republic for a more direct route to Tiffin, the village’s economic growth began to decline. Today, the Village of Republic remains still as a small farming community. Your wall was part of a barn on the Widman Family Farm, which was established in 1964 by Vincent Widman. The barn was used to house livestock and farm equipment for the Widman’s vast farm operations. The Widman’s grow and harvest corn, wheat and soybeans. The family farm is still in operation today.  

HORSE BARN

CODE: 983243  |  BUILT: 1884  |  LOCATION: FLEMINGSBERG, KY

Your Artis Wall planks came from an old Horse Barn in Flemingsburg, Kentucky off highway 11, dating back to 1884. Flemingsburg is a small town located in northeastern Kentucky. The small town has become home to many Amish and Mennonite families because of the fertile land for growing crops. Flemingsburg gets its name from Colonel Fleming who settled near Fleming creek and established Fleming Station. In 1971 he led a team of men into battle with some Indians who had stolen two children and several horses. This battle was known as battle run. Fleming and his team were outnumbered by the Indians and were forced to retreat. Colonel Fleming was badly injured during the battle and died 3 years later.