IHS Built Environment Typology : Structures : Buildings :

Grain Elevators (part 2a)

Mature Types: Self-Contained Grain Elevators : Square-Bin : Others

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.

Type Family: Self-Contained Grain Elevators (Continued)

These types are buidings with enclosed shapes - not semi-dispersed structure complexes (i.e., the "Annex" grain elevator Master Type, below). They were the first developed, in the 1840s, and their designs survived through World War II, after which construction the Annex design probably became far more numerous.

Square-Bin Grain Elevator Types (Continued)

These are buildings with a generally rectangular footprint, and square or rectangular bins inside. The bins are either vertical or horizontal.

Vertical Square-Bin Grain Elevator Types (Continued)

These are buildings with a generally rectangular footprint, and square or rectangular vertical bins inside. They were the first true grain elevators to appear, made possible by the application of an elevating mechanism in 1842 (...Cromley on Banham, JSAH 1987), which is almost always indicated by a projecting headhouse on the top of the grain elevator building. They were mature and becoming common by the time of the Civil War.

Masonry Square-Bin Grain Elevator

Examples

Steel-Panel Square-Bin Grain Elevator

Factory-made panels of steel sheeting are bolted together to create bins and walls.

Steel-Frame Square-Bin Grain Elevator

This type is less well known, and rarer than the others. It is essentially a short, steel-frame skyscraper, with square vertical bins formed within the steel grid. The walls are usually closed-in with rectangular clay tiles or reinforced concrete, and often the concrete-encased steel frame is left clearly exposed on the outside. The construction is probably relatively expensive for smaller buildings, and so most of this material are probably [Conveyor-Dominant] Grain Elevator Types.

...unless what I've seen are flour mills about which I'm confused ...

Horizontal Square-Bin Grain Elevator Types

These are buildings with square or rectangular horizontal bins inside. ...Though, I'm thinking more and more that they are just relatively short vertical bins...more investigation is necessary on this.

Wooden Horizontal Square-Bin Grain Elevator

Horizontal Square-Bin Annex Grain Elevator

These are buildings apparently with a rectangular footprint. Though apparently similar to the Grain Warehouse, they appear to be later, less-expensive, and dependant grain elevator types, probably developed in the mid-20th century.

Balloon Frame / Wood Horizontal Square-Bin annex grain elevator
or "Temporary Horizontal Balloon Type Annex" (Inglis)

Judging by these Canadian examples, this subtype is usually a gabled, wide-rectangular, relatively short wooden building with characteristic intemittent horizontal wall reinforcements, like rectalinear belts. They lack a headhouse / cupola, apparently being dependant on another grain elevator building for those services.

Most appear to be in Canada, and dates seen are 1940s and 1950s; these are probably cheap alternatives to modern building designs and materials, intended to be short-term (as Inglis implies).