Tobacco Barn
Page Tobacco Barn, Built Circa 1889, Page Agriculture Children's Exhibit
Located at the Shaw House
The Page Tobacco Barn was originally located in Carthage and moved to the Shaw House grounds in 1998. It was a donation by Thad Page, great-great-grandson of Charles Cornelius and Mary Ray Shaw, original owners of the Shaw House.
Interest in the barn was revived in 2018 when it was repaired and restored. Now the barn is an Exhibit featuring the role of children in local agriculture.
A Tobacco Barn’s purpose was to cure tobacco. The Page barn has a furnace and a flue (A stove pipe) installed around the perimeter of the inside of the barn on three sides and exhausts under the shed roof on the outside. In an actual field situation the flue (smokestack) would have extended through the shed roof and would have been much taller than the barn roof to prevent sparks setting fire to the barn roof. The flue curing system eliminated some of the risk of fire by enclosing the fire and eliminating the need of an open flame in the barn. A flue-curing barn might be used 3 to 4 times a year. When the tobacco crop had been processed (after September in this area) the barn was used for storage of equipment or remained idle.
On large farms there might be as many as 40 barns that required diligent oversight. If barns became overheated it would overcook the tobacco or cause barn fires. A farm hand was assigned to regularly check each barn’s temperature. On smaller farms “settin’ up with the barn” by members of the family and friends was necessary to keep the barn at the right temperature and prevent barn fires, events which would cause loss of income for the year’s work.
Flue curing barns used to be a common sight in North Carolina fields. In 1950 there were estimated to have been a half million such barns in North Carolina alone. Today they are rare. Many have been scavenged for their wood timber and recycled into houses or have been taken down for other reasons.
The Shaw House properties are located on Morganton Road at the intersection of SW Broad Street in Southern Pines, North Carolina. From the traffic circle at Pinehurst, North Carolina, take NC 211–US 15-501 south. Drive approximately 2.1 miles and turn left at the Pinecrest Plaza traffic light onto Morganton Road. The houses are approximately 1.9 miles on the left before the Broad Street traffic light. Please go to our Locations page to access a Google driving map.
Located at the Shaw House
The Page Tobacco Barn was originally located in Carthage and moved to the Shaw House grounds in 1998. It was a donation by Thad Page, great-great-grandson of Charles Cornelius and Mary Ray Shaw, original owners of the Shaw House.
Interest in the barn was revived in 2018 when it was repaired and restored. Now the barn is an Exhibit featuring the role of children in local agriculture.
A Tobacco Barn’s purpose was to cure tobacco. The Page barn has a furnace and a flue (A stove pipe) installed around the perimeter of the inside of the barn on three sides and exhausts under the shed roof on the outside. In an actual field situation the flue (smokestack) would have extended through the shed roof and would have been much taller than the barn roof to prevent sparks setting fire to the barn roof. The flue curing system eliminated some of the risk of fire by enclosing the fire and eliminating the need of an open flame in the barn. A flue-curing barn might be used 3 to 4 times a year. When the tobacco crop had been processed (after September in this area) the barn was used for storage of equipment or remained idle.
On large farms there might be as many as 40 barns that required diligent oversight. If barns became overheated it would overcook the tobacco or cause barn fires. A farm hand was assigned to regularly check each barn’s temperature. On smaller farms “settin’ up with the barn” by members of the family and friends was necessary to keep the barn at the right temperature and prevent barn fires, events which would cause loss of income for the year’s work.
Flue curing barns used to be a common sight in North Carolina fields. In 1950 there were estimated to have been a half million such barns in North Carolina alone. Today they are rare. Many have been scavenged for their wood timber and recycled into houses or have been taken down for other reasons.
The Shaw House properties are located on Morganton Road at the intersection of SW Broad Street in Southern Pines, North Carolina. From the traffic circle at Pinehurst, North Carolina, take NC 211–US 15-501 south. Drive approximately 2.1 miles and turn left at the Pinecrest Plaza traffic light onto Morganton Road. The houses are approximately 1.9 miles on the left before the Broad Street traffic light. Please go to our Locations page to access a Google driving map.