bank barn n chiefly PA, OH, MD, VA, IN See Map Also called basement barn n, cellar barn n, Swiss barn n
A barn built into a slope, with access to the basement on one side and to the main floor on the other.
1796 Claypoole’s Amer. Daily Advt. (Philadelphia PA) 30 Mar [2]/1, [Advt:] A new bank barn, 96 feet by 30, of brick below and timber above, with other good stabling. 1838 Cincinnati Daily Gaz. (OH) 25 Sept [3]/2 cwOH, [Advt:] A good brick House, large new Bank Barn, Stables, and Sheds. 1868 OH State Bd. Ag. Annual Rept. for 1867 2.41, Our Pennsylvania farmers still adhere to the “bank barn.” If there is no bank on the farm, they make one, so as to have the privilege of drawing their heavily loaded harvest wagons up hill into the barn, and backing their teams to get them out. 1894 Congressional Record 18 Jan 1036/1 PA, On my father’s farm . . there stood a big bank barn. 1903 DN 2.349 neOH, Bank-barn. . . A barn built on the hill side so that three sides of the lower story are surrounded by earth, the fourth being open. 1940 Mencken Happy Days 85, By the time they got to the barnyard he was disappearing through the door of the old bank-barn. 1940 Yoder Rosanna 79 sePA, Besides a large bank barn, there were all the necessary out-buildings. 1942 Warnick Garrett Co. MD 3 nwMD (as of 1900–18). 1946 PADS 5.10 nwVA. 1947 PADS 8.30 swOH. 1950 WELS (A barn built on a hillside with entrances on two levels) 1 Inf, cwWI, Bank barn. 1965–70 DARE (Qu. M1, . . Different or special kinds of barns) 58 Infs, chiefly PA, OH, MD, VA, IN, Bank barn. 1968 DARE Tape MD20, We have a bank barn over there to store away feed and keep cows in in the wintertime, and we have a cow barn to do the same thing. 1985 Gettysburg Times (PA) 6 Apr 1/1, The newest bank barn in the county . . was built in the 30’s. Most of the others are about 100 years old, with some surviving from the days of the battle. 2007 Daily News–Rec. (Harrisonburg VA) 6 Sept sec B 1/1, As development and new agriculture technology come into the Shenandoah Valley, old-fashioned bank barns are disappearing.
