Yankee Barn Homes is celebrating its golden anniversary this year. As part of the celebration, Post and Beam Living is looking back over our company’s amazing 50-year history. We have a treasure trove of information on the company’s early years, thanks to the Peninsula Council of New Seabury in Mashpee, MA.
1969 – A Very Good Year for Yankee Barn Homes
The year is 1969. Yankee Barn Homes is a fledgling company with the unique idea of creating a prefabricated barn home using re-purposed timbers harvested from old mill buildings. Located in Mashpee, MA, the company’s CEO and founder, Emil Hanslin, will soon become known as a visionary in the home-build industry. In the not-too-distant future, Emil will land on Life Magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People. But right now, on Feb 14, 1969, Emil needs to promote his new company and tell people why they should build a Yankee Barn Home.
The following are excerpts from promotional materials for Yankee Barn Homes written in 1969 by Emil and his son, Tony. What pleases today’s Yankee Barn Homes is how close we’ve stayed to the company’s founding principles. We were, and are, a prime example of Yankee ingenuity and practicality. Give the people what they want, don’t try to sell the product as something it’s not, and make it visually appealing and energy efficient. Check, CHECK, and CHECK!
The Yankee Barn Home
“Welcome to a house with a grand architectural tradition and an exciting new spirit. The Yankee Barn Home has both. It was designed to capture the beauty of a classic native building – the American barn.”
“THE YANKEE BARN HOME HAS GOOD, STRONG ROOTS. Like no house you’ve ever seen, it expresses the character of an early 19th Century barn. This is because the house takes great care to incorporate dignity of form and purity of design. All structural members are brawny, over-size timbers, reclaimed from old New England buildings. They are exposed in the Yankee Barn Home to be seen and admired – chisel marks and all. The floors, too, are super strong. The hardware, nails and pegs, the soaring barn-like spaciousness all honor the integrity of early American barn architecture. “
“BUT IT IS SPACE AGE, TOO. Like any house you would want to buy, the Yankee Barn Home uses modern materials where they are best suited and space-age techniques where they yield extra values. Plywood sandwich panels of special design contribute the structural stability and strength far greater than the standard residential specifications call for. Innovations in design and assembly assure a better built home, a more economically and efficiently built house. As the ultimate measure of its quality and value, the Yankee Barn Home weighs twice as much as a typical house of the same size and price.”
As we read over the 50-year-old advertising materials, we smile at some of the verbiage like space-age, but take pride in the company’s founding principles. They remain sound 50 years later. This is the mark of a solid company standing the test of time. Happy 50 Year Anniversary, Yankee Barn Homes. Here’s to 50 more!
