Lattin-Crandall Octagon Barn, Catherine New York
The Lattin-Crandall barn is located approximately one mile east of the hamlet of Catharine on Schuyler County, Route 14 in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. The barn is situated approximately 300 feet south of the road, behind a modest and much altered 1½-story Greek Revival period farmhouse and an undistinguished one-story shed.
The barn is octagonal in plan with a 55-foot diameter. A two-story gable-roofed rectangular addition with a single story lean-to at the north extends approximately 45 feet to the east and appears to have been added very shortly after the initial construction of the original barn. The octagon barn is covered with board and batten siding above a stone foundation. The rectangular addition has vertical plank siding without battens. The octagon barn features a simple hipped roof with an octagonal cupola with windows. Early lighting arresters with glass balls remain on the roof and cupola. At the west side, a graded ramp leads upward to double sliding wagon doors. Small square windows are placed irregularly around the exposed walls of the ground floor. Several six-over-six double-hung sash windows occur at the first floor.
The interior of the barn is divided into a manger originally equipped with straight cow stalls at the ground floor and a first floor divided into a rectangular wagon drive at the center flanked by large swing beams at the north and south. The barn is built of heavy timber framing with log columns and beams at the ground floor and squared timbers above the first floor. The roof of this barn is freestanding and built without the aid of intermediate supports or bracing.
The Lattin-Crandall octagon barn, built in 1893, is an early example in New York State of the octagon prototype popularized by Elliot Stewart in 1870s. It differs significantly from the two other octagon barns in its strict adherence to Stewart's framing design. Whereas the Baker and Lunn-Musser barns both depend on the intermediate support of a square of posts to carry and stabilize the roof, the Lattin-Crandall barn features a self-supporting roof without intervening members, leaving the mow unobstructed above the wagon drive.
The barn was built for owner William S. Lattin by George Stewart, supposedly from plans obtained in Columbia Crossroads, Pennsylvania.
East from ramped driveway (1984)
South from driveway (1984)
South from farmhouse (1984)
