IHS Built Environment Typology :
Structures : Buildings :

Grain Elevators :

Self-Contained Type-Family : Square-Bin Supertype :
Vertical Square-Bin Type : Wood Construction Material :

Diagnostics

Diagnostics of Wooden Square-Bin Grain Elevators. (Examples are in a separate webpage.)

Grain Elevators are ubiquitous buildings, yet there is little popular understanding of them and their origins.

The basic arrangement of a grain elevator fits into two different "Type Families" based on whether it is a discrete building ("Self-Contained"), or a semi-dispersed cluster of structures (Annex).

Within those classifications, there are several distinctive types based on grain bin design and arrangment. Construction material and assembly then determine different subtypes or material variants.

An index to this and related typologies spells out the interrelationships concisely (without the clutter of images and descriptive text). Related and similar building and structure types are in a sibling websection.

Examples

Images of Wooden Square-Bin Grain Elevators through history and across the continent - in a separate webpage

Diagnostics

Elements * = diagnostic

(Orientation of Grain Elevators is based on the elevation facing the road and/or railroad, their primary angle of approach for use.)

Size: ** large size: about 20-50 by 30-50 foot square or rectangle

Shape: *** characteristic "milk-carton" shape with clerestory and gabled roofs, or rarely 'square bottle' shape with center square cupola with hip roofs

Height:** very tall; one ground floor at base (often with basement) and one clerestory floor at top, with tall vertical bins between

Width: 3 to 7 bays wide, usually

Depth: 3 to 4 small bays deep, usually

Roof: gable, side-gable orientation with gabled clerestory, or rarely, pyramidal hip with hipped cupola

Doors/Openings: irregular placement and numbers; usually at least one entry door somewhere on both broad sides, with cart door and/or wagon doors; sometimes other entry doors or cart double doors in mid-level (for hauling up material); chutes and spouts variously project from ground level and lower mid-level

Structure: Wood; two variants: Studded where the bins are built of lumber studs and bracing with board walling, and Cribbed where the bins are built up with planks laid atop each other in log-cabin style, with ends alternately overlaping and spiked with large nails.
Ornament: rarely ornamented, like barns; very utilitarian appearance

Features

(few interiors observed)

Large, tall building, usually a landmark
Sometimes through-way for a wagon
Corn cribs form side walls
Large vertical bins in mid-level, terminating in funnels (usually square) at base
Narrow, irregular, winding stairway from ground floor though bins to clerestory/cupola