There is a wide range of barn types, wider than most publications descibe. This portion of the web site is an attempt to catalog and describe as many as I can find, recognize, and identify. Most examples are from Ohio.
The basic arrangement of a grain elevator fits into two different type families based on whether it is a discrete building, or a semi-dispersed cluster of structures. Within those classifications, there are several distinctive types based on grain bin design and arrangment. Construction materials and design then determine different subtypes.
Houses fall into Types based on their floorplan and story height. Those types can be grouped into "Type Families" based on their basic form and how similar types are related. A quick list to the type families and key types below is detailed in this webchapter.
The "Foursquare Courthouse" was a phenomena of the late 18th through the middle 19th century. Not to be confused with the later and completely different Fourquare house type, it was a form of public building that was cubical with a pyramidal roof and used predominantly for courthouses.
Their origins are unclear. They probably trace back to cubical puritan meetinghouses of the 17th and 18th centuries, but the jump from New England church to Ohio Valley courthouse is problematic.
My interest stems from the fact that my hometown of Chillicothe had an early version of a foursquare courthouse (on the right), which also served as the first statehouse of Ohio. That building is said to be the model of a courthouse still standing in Indiana (on the left) that served as that state's first capitol, too.
Ohio was a hotbed for the form, as witnessed in 1845 images of foursquare courthouses from Howe's Historical Collection of Ohio (along top). A collection of images are available in Gallery 1 and Gallery 2.
