Bucks Barn Voyage: A Tour Preview and a Quiz to Test Your Knowledge

Bucks County has a lot going for it in the summer, but one of the more overlooked day trips doesn’t involve a trail, a town, or shopping.  It involves barns.

Heritage Conservancy put together the Barn Voyage self-guided driving tour with support from Visit Bucks County, and it takes you past 19 historic barns scattered across Central Bucks County. While these barns are visible from the road, they are located on private properties, so this is a drive-by-and-look kind of tour. The variety of what you’ll find is very unique to our region: stone barns from the 1700s, a barn with a 1796 date stone in the gable, a property that stayed in the same family from 1766 until 1927, and a barn designed by renowned architect R. Brognard Okie, who also worked on the Betsy Ross House and Pennsbury Manor.

Pineville Barn in Bucks County

The back roads of Bucks County are truly unique and offer a rare view of our local history that we are fortunate to have still intact. Some of the barns on this tour stood witness to the American Revolution and the founding of this country. Some of them are still being used as working farms, while others are adaptively reused as houses or offices.  Bucks County’s history and heritage are deeply rooted in its landscape, and this tour is an opportunity to view some of the structures that continue to signify why we value where we live.

You can download the PDF brochure for the full tour with driving directions or click here for more info.  Or stop by Aldie Mansion in Doylestown to pick up a physical copy. We also have an Upper Bucks Barn Voyage for you to explore this summer!

Here is a sample of a few of the barns on the Central Bucks tour:

Thompson-Neely Barn on River Road

• The Thompson-Neely Barn (1632 River Road, New Hope) is one of the most architecturally unusual stops on the tour. Built in the early 1700s, it has two stories on the rear elevation but only one story on the barnyard side. It’s a saltbox configuration that’s hard to appreciate until you’re standing in front of it.
• At 3447-3451 Street Road in Doylestown, look for the keystone lintels above the windows in the gable end, a detail that sets this barn apart. The property has a 1796 date stone, and its history connects to John Holcombe, a local Quaker who served as a Lieutenant in the American Revolution.
• The collection at 6370 Greenhill Road in New Hope is worth a slow drive-by. Three barns on one property, including an unusually long stone barn with a projecting frame forebay. The Balderston family held this land from 1766 until 1927, when 128 acres were sold.
• And don’t skip the Bucks County Audubon Society at Honey Hollow (2877 Creamery Road, New Hope). The barn there was built in 1934 and designed by R. Brognard Okie. It sits on land protected by a conservation easement administered by Heritage Conservancy, which makes it a particularly fitting stop on this tour. BCAS converted this barn into the Honey Hollow Nature Center, and you can visit M-F, 9-3 pm.

With the exception of Honey Hollow Nature Center, these barns are on private property, so please be respectful and enjoy from a distance.

Balderston Farm on Greenhill Rd, New Hope

Think you know your Bucks County barns? Take the quiz.

Bucks County’s barn landscape is heavily shaped by Pennsylvania German heritage, and often the standard Pennsylvania barn is a blend of English and German barn-building traditions. That heritage shows up in some very specific architectural details. See how many of these you know, answers at the bottom.

The part of a barn, located toward the barnyard wall, that extends out over the stable wall of the basement is called the ________.

The triangular upper portion of a wall at the end of a pitched roof is called the ________.

A roof with two slopes on each side — a shallower upper slope and a steeper lower one — is called a ________ roof.

The small windowed structure sitting on top of a barn’s roof, used for ventilation and light, is called a ________.

A barn built into a hillside so that the upper level can be entered from ground level on one side is called a ________ barn.

The decorative cut-out openings in the gable ends of Pennsylvania German barns (often shaped like diamonds or Maltese crosses) are called ________.

The loft over the threshing floor of a Pennsylvania German barn (adapted from the Pennsylvania Dutch term Owwerdenn) is called the ________.

Answers:
1. Forebay
2. Gable
3. Gambrel
4. Cupola
5. Bank barn
6. Swallow holes (or Schwalme Lecher in PA Dutch).
7. Overden

Ready to hit the road? Download the Barn Voyage brochure for the full list of 19 barns and turn-by-turn driving directions. Physical brochures are also available at Aldie Mansion, 85 Old Dublin Pike, Doylestown. Heritage Conservancy protects historic properties throughout Bucks County through land easements, facade easements, and listings on our Historic Register.  Because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.