Hubbell Trading Post Administrative History

CHAPTER VII:
CULTURAL RESOURCES I

Building Roster

Figure 24. The Barn, HB-3. The barn has been the subject of much reconstruction and stabilization. Construction of the barn was started in about 1893 and continued into the early years of the twentieth century. NPS photo by C. Steen and K. Wing, 11 February 1958, HUTR Neg. 14.

Barn

HB-3: "The barn of 1968 is virtually the same structure it was at the turn of the century." [7] The barn was begun in about 1893 and completed in the early years of this century, with the only apparent addition in later years being the "ribbing or lath" [8] which fills the openings in the second story. The use of the barn area changed over the years, however, as the blacksmith shop located there evolved into a shop for working on motor vehicles. It is interesting to note that to return the blacksmith shop to being simply a blacksmith shop---which might be the first thing one would think of to do with such an area---would eliminate the changes brought by the early days of motoring, now no less an historic period than horse-and-buggy days.

The structure is 80' by 81' on the ground floor, the second story 60' by 62'. There are stock pens, stalls, storage rooms, and the work areas on the first floor. The second story is a hay loft. Walls are of "rough rubble" set with adobe clay mortar. Earth floors. Roofs are the usual large pine vigas, latilla [9] ceilings over the vigas, earth spread across the latillas.

The barn has always been a source of headaches as well as the object of much reconstruction and stabilization. When the site was purchased in 1967, the west wall of the barn's storeroom was apparently on the verge of falling out. As already discussed, it has never been possible to keep a roof on the place. At some point a "nonhistoric" roof was installed over the original and this consisted of "corrugated sheet metal, a layer of gray portland cement mixed with perlite, a weatherproof sealer, and a final layer of stabilized aluminate cement, which visually resembles the earth color of the original roof." [10] In spite of all this effort, NPS maintenance people are back to periodically spreading earth on the roof.

Over the many years the barn became the repository for an astonishing assortment of things that the Hubbells thought "might come in handy," including a "banjo case, less the banjo." [11] An inventory taken on July 11, 1968, lists ninety-five entries, from washing machines to a "car, 1953 NM plates, not ancient." [12] Is this the 1940 Packard that Ned Danson remembers being out there? If so, what happened to it? Because the trading post was usually short of qualified curatorial people, it took years to properly clean out the barn. Even in the mid-1970s, "J. L.'s [Lorenzo Hubbell's] alligator traveling bag was out in the barn where the mules and the horses were walking on it." [13]

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Last Updated: 22-Jan-2001