Here, we’re looking at one of our favorite red barns yesterday. It’s a local barn well-sited high on the Flye Point peninsula overlooking Herrick Bay. It apparently is not a “working barn,” in the sense that it stores grain or shelters farm animals, but it’s a picturesque reminder of days gone by.
While red barns are considered picturesque now, that wasn’t why that color was favored by many farmers in past centuries. According to experts. farmers needed something to seal the barn wood and protect against things like fungus and rot, but they had to make their own sealers and paints.
They usually used linseed oil from flax seeds, which is an orange-like stain that will adhere to wood. They mixed that with ferrous oxide (rust), which was plentiful and turned the mixture red. When manufactured paints of various colors became available, many farmers chose red because that was the traditional barn color.
By the way, the word “barn” derives from the Old English word “bere,” which meant barley specifically, but also grain, generally. (Brooklin, Maine)