OTISFIELD — The Otisfield Historical Society will open its new season of activities with a program about barns by a self-described “barnologist.”
The society will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Otisfield Community Hall.
Jean Hankins of the society said the session will start with election of officers and a business meeting. Don Perkins will then present an illustrated program on Maine barns.
Perkins, a Raymond resident, carpenter and woodworker before he became a writer, has traveled the state to find barns that tell rich stories of personal lives and loss — and sometimes even love.
Perkins’ interest in barns came from his early career in hand-hewn timber framing and his work as a carpenter. He began to research Maine’s barns while writing about the buildings for a local newspaper. Hankins said Perkins discovered at the time how little research had been done on New England barns.
“We have largely taken them for granted and now race to learn more before heavy snows, fire and development claim more of these majestic old farm buildings,” Perkins wrote in his 2012 book, “The Barns of Maine: Our History, Our Stories.”
Hankins said Perkins has promised to talk about English tying joints, some of which he said are probably found in Otisfield barns. Hankins, who owns a barn dated 1840, said the society has been inventorying Otisfield barns with the help of Perkins, and many date prior to 1840.
Autographed copies of his 2012 illustrated book will be available for sale after the presentation.
Perkins’ book ranges in time from the medieval period to the present day, and geographically from England to Aroostook County and the Maritimes.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- Don Perkins is a writer and a timber framer from Raymond.
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