In the late 1800s, Emil Anishanslin arrived from Basel, Switzerland with finish carpentry tools in hand. He found work as a carpenter and homebuilder in the St Louis, MO area. His son, Emil, went on to build a typical late 40's subdivision in St. Louis, then packed his profits in a suitcase and retired to the Rio Grand Valley town of Pharr, Texas. There Emil became a trusted investor and seller of farmland.

Years later, Emil Hanslin, followed his father's path building homes on Cape Cod, MA. In 1968 his wife Suzanne Hanslin, a sculptor and equestrian, suggested to her real estate developer husband Emil, that barn architecture could be the basis for a wonderful home. At the time, Emil Hanslin was engaged in the development of New Seabury, a residential community on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Emil was intrigued by Suzanne's suggestion and added the concept of using posts and beams hewn from massive timbers from Industrial Revolution era mill buildings. Over about a year in time, Emil devised a barn home design that combined beauty, value, efficiency, and comfort. He named his design the "Mark I" and formed a company around it named "Yankee Barn Homes."

Initially it was the intention of Emil to sell only the building plans for the Mark I. However, after discussing quality control and cost control issues with several friends in the homebuilding industry, he changed his mind and decided to make the key elements of the home. So, in 1969 Yankee Barn Homes rented a small facility in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and hired an experienced carpentry crew. Shortly afterward, the Mark I went into production as a complete barn-style home package that could be assembled on a prepared foundation in just five days.

During the first year in business, Yankee Barn Homes geared its marketing efforts primarily toward the greater Boston area, although it also achieved some sales in the mountain regions of New Hampshire and on the coast of Maine. Early on a boost from a Life magazine article favorably discussed Yankee Barn Homes and helped expand market reach from coast to coast.

Over the decades, our distinctive homes have generated highly complimentary publicity from articles in leading housing and design magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Country Accents, Country Living, Downeast, Good Housekeeping, Home magazine, House Beautiful, Timber Frame Homes, Timber Homes Illustrated, House and Garden, and Yankee. Prominent articles about the corporation and its products have also appeared in major newspapers all over the United States and Canada, including the Boston Globe, The New York Times and the Washington Post.

In 1973 the operations of Yankee Barn Homes were relocated northward to much larger facilities in Grantham, New Hampshire. This location was selected because of its close proximity to Eastman, a seasonal housing community centered around Eastman Lake in Grantham that was being developed by Emil Hanslin and his son Tony Hanslin in partnership with Dartmouth College, Chubb Insurance Group, and the Society for New Hampshire Forests. Emil and Tony were also real estate consultants to businesses such as Rockwell International Corporation and Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Emil Hanslin became disabled in 1986 and passed away in 1987, leaving behind an impressive array of accomplishments in both personal and business life. In the 1980's Yankee Barn Homes developed and introduced a series of separate frame extensions that can be attached to the basic designs. This approach enables customers to customize their homes to fit their individual needs. These frame extensions came to include: ells, dormers, garages, guest quarters, greenhouses, sugar houses, horse barns, and granaries, all of which can be assembled as an attachment or as a side structure to the home. In essence, with many creative contributions from customers, Yankee Barn Homes established a unique systems approach to high quality homes based on a variety of shapes.

Our Homeowners are very exceptional and often creative folk. They include Thomas Watson, Jr., the former Chairman of IBM, who purchased four Yankee Barn Homes, Seiji Ozawa, Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who owns a home in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, near "Tanglewood," Tommy DePaola, well known author and illustrator, and the actor Robert Montgomery.

Also there have been church communities and other organizations who have built facilities with Yankee Barn Homes. You can even find an enormous Yankee Barn serving as a ski lodge/restaurant half way up a Vermont mountain.

Many clients have been following us through our newsletters which we began in the early eighties and continue to distribute today as the Yankee Barn family grows, following in the combination of tradition and innovation—the hallmark of Yankee Barn Homes.

The National Association of Home Builders recognized Emil Hanslin (1920 - 1987), founder of Yankee Barn Homes, as one of American Housing's Most Influential Leaders in the last one hundred years.

As a leading innovator in the housing industry, Emil Hanslin founded Yankee Barn Homes in 1969 to custom-design and craft timber frame homes. Hanslin set out to market an authentic styled barn home designed to fit a contemporary lifestyle and built with the finest materials for weather protection and energy conservation. Today Tony Hanslin carries on his father's vision as Chief Executive Officer of the company.

In addition to Hanslin, others named in the January 1999 issue of the association's magazine, Builder, as American Housing's Most Influential Leaders include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Ford, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, R. Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, Harry Truman, Ray Watt, and Royal Barry Wills. Wills collaborated with Hanslin in the design of model homes and Wills' son Charles had a leading role in the management of Yankee Barn Homes in the 1970's.

Suzie Hanslin	Emil Hanslin