A classic hand-hewn barn New owners enjoying the old Lawrence place (Photo Don Perkins)

Karl Gimpel and Rachel Houlihan own 100 acres and a big white barn on Gray's Lawrence Road. Gimpel said the property is the original Lawrence Homestead (now labeled No. 76), and is how the road gets its name. Back in the early 1800s, it seems Ephraim and Sarah Sawtelle Lawrence left Groton, Mass. and headed for Gray.

The property works out nicely for its newest couple, today. Rachel is active with horses and Karl enjoys living at a central location in southern Maine that still feels nice and rural.

"The house has character, but I bought it for the land," said Gimpel, 36. The couple moved here from Parsonsfield five years ago and have been rehabbing the old house ever since. Built in sections, Gimpel said the earliest part dates to 1818. The last section is circa 1860. The 44 by 60-foot barn is set back a good distance from the house and exhibits construction details from the early 1800s.

This particular barn is the only structure so far in this series to display vertical boarding on both roof and walls. As such, it's consistent with what many think of as the classic hand-hewn post and beam barn. Old barns came with two basic roof-framing systems: major rafter with minor purlin, or common rafter with major purlin. Before this Lawrence Road barn, all the barns in this series have displayed the common rafter with major purlin system. These barns have closely spaced vertical rafters, supported horizontally in the middle by a major purlin running parallel to the eave and ridge. As such, horizontal roof sheathing is nailed perpendicular to the framing.

So you might say Gimpel's barn is old school. When viewed from a distance you can see the major rafter skeleton holding strong, while between the major rafters, the rest of the roof field sags from centuries of gravity. This is a six-bent barn, which means there are six major roof rafters equally spaced.

It's also a "New England" barn, which means the access doors are on the gable ends. When the early settlers came to America they brought the "English" barn with them - a barn with the major entry at the long walls under the eaves. After visiting four barns so far in this series, which have all been "New England" style barns, I've noticed a commonality among them: the entrance doors on these barns are all 12 to 13 feet wide, which suggests a standard building practice. Gimpel figures it's due to the hay carts years ago.

Gimpel also keeps his share of hay here, getting some 2,000 bales from his fields. He and his wife use the feed for their two horses and other animals, including two goats, and a pig. "The nice thing about this barn is it's always had animals in it," said Gimpel. "I hope to keep it that way."

Since the 1970s, Gimpel and Houlihan are the third owners of this barn, with repairs and additions happening at numerous periods. Gimpel had to reinforce some areas, especially in the roof. The six major hand-hewn crossbeams run the full 44-foot width. They're not spliced. Two mortises can be found in all of these eight-by-eight beams that receive post tenons at the barn's midsections. The mortise and tenon is a time-tested joint, but a trade-off occurs when removing wood: to a certain extent, a mortise weakens the beam. "They were ripping apart under the snow load," said Gimpel.

So he sistered some plywood gussets to each side of the mortised areas, and he also put some 6-by-6 uprights under the crossbeams, which, via other bracing, support the major roof purlins.

"It's funny, given the winters we supposedly had before," Gimpel said, "why there wasn't more meat in some of these barns. You could see those crossbeams deflect two or three inches in the winter."

But it still stands. In the future, Gimpel wants to see a new roof put on. He appreciates our old barns, especially his. "I feel lucky to have this place," he said. "I hope to stay here forever."