This timber framed corn crib was built originally in New York state circa 1870, and is an excellent example of an early American corn crib.
Here's an excerpt from Eric Sloanes' "An Age of Barns" about the history
of American corn cribs:
The Corn Crib
The first mention of a corn crib is in an almanac from the year 1701. At that time, the crib was a square of alternately piled logs covered by a slanted roof. In the late 1700's, there were cribs built on posts, and many had one bin for soft corn and a larger bin for hard corn. The side-walls are most often slanted outward at the eaves. Large farms had several corn cribs, because this was considered more efficient that one huge crib. On small pioneer farms, corn was dried in the dwelling attic or in a special “corn room”-usually over the kitchen. The earliest farms also had cribs for the shelled corncobs. The cobs were prized for their oven ash which was used in the smoking of meats, for quick kindling, and for dozens of other purposes. In many mountain farms, the drive-in crib was the beginning of barn architecture, for by adding doors in the driveway wall you have the simplest American barn. The distinctively shaped corn crib, with slanted side walls built of spaced wooden slats, became common by the 1860s. The overhanging eaves and slanted walls helped prevent rain from splashing inside. Vertical side walls also are common. Corn cribs are typically set high above the ground on wooden or stone posts. Metal pans or pie plates were sometimes laid on top of these posts to deter rats, mice, and other small animals.
