Celebration of Swiss Heritage Barns
in USA, Canada and Switzerland

On August 7, The Museum of Appalachia will take part in a world-wide celebration of Swiss heritage barns in the United States, Canada and Switzerland.

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., visitors can tour the Museum’s historic Cantilever Barn in person, and see eight other barns in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Switzerland and Canada via internet connection through skype.com. The virtual event is included with regular admission.

In preparing for the event, the Museum developed wi-fi capability so it could take part in the webcasts—making the Museum café an internet “hot spot.”

The Cantilever Barn (top photo) was moved to the Museum in May 1977 from Seymour, Tenn. An old farm was being subdivided into lots for homes, and the barn was removed shortly before the bulldozers came to demolish it.

The barn is a two-pen style with overhangs on all four sides. On August 7, visitors can step inside the pens for a close look at construction techniques.

Museum Founder John Rice Irwin notes that, in the Southeast, cantilevered barns are found almost exclusively in a few counties of East Tennessee. Most were built during a 50-year period beginning in the 1870s.

Marian Moffet, a University of Tennessee researcher, found six such barns in Virginia and three in North Carolina. In contrast, 289 were found in Sevier and Blount counties, and another 27 in other East Tennessee counties.

The historical basis for such structures lies in southern Germany and Switzerland, Irwin says. Families of this stock settled in Pennsylvania; they later poured down the Shenandoah Valley into Southern Appalachia.

Click here to see more photos of our barns

(note the Stoffle barn, with the metal roof, can be viewed from the entrance drive but is not on the tour)

 The Museum of Appalachia is open during daylight hours year-round, except Thanksgiving & Christmas Day. Closing times vary with the seasons, depending upon daylight hours.  Please check this page or telephone for exact hours of closing.

Tel (865) 494-7680	Fax (865) 494-8957
E-mail us at: museum@museumofappalachia.org
Our physical address is 2819 Andersonville Hwy. Clinton, TN 37716	Our mailing address is P.O. Box 1189 Norris, TN 37828