The late Tomas H. Anthony, paternal grandfather of
Minnie Anthony Common built this barn in a valley
between two hills on the dead-end road that goes from Parish Road to Perch River
Dam (called the Cooke Road at one time). Joseph Cooke purchased the property in
1897 until he sold it to the DEC.
Tom Anthony also was known as the
inventor of a low, solid-wood-wheeled wagon with a big platform which could be
loaded with a railroad carload of baled hay, drawn by six or more horses.
At the time that this barn was built and used it was the longest
barn in Jefferson County. Some accounts list the barn as much shorter then
other accounts and there seems to be a discrepancy, but after a thorough measurement using GPS
with WAAS I found that the 250 foot long measurement is correct.
The barn was also 60 feet from
the roof to the ground. Horses and wagons loaded with hay could enter either end
near the roofline and the hay was dumped down into deep mows on either side,
which saved a lot of time at a time when most farm work was done by hand.
The cows and horses were stabled in the bottom part of the barn, in the stone
part. In front of the barn was the farm-house, also long-gone.
The DEC took over the land and razed most of it,
many years ago. But I and my father, as well as another amateur historian
- Eric H., have made many trips to investigate the ruins of this
farm and the surrounding buildings as well as the area around the farm.
Eric has also been doing some metal detecting for artifacts.
More info about this barn and old pictures of the intact structure at these Nan Dixon pages: barn, barn1, barn2, barn3, & barn4. Please note - the picture that is shown on Mrs. Dixon's pages of the house that went with this farm is not the correct house.
Date unknown
Old photo of original long barn
I've created this map using satellite photos and my GPS, showing
markers of locations for all ruins and remaining landmarks. Click to see
the map (large).
Also, there is the remains of a limestone drain
which went under the barn. I think this must have been used to allow the
inevitable stream to drain, which must have flowed through the valley during the
wet seasons.