Carolina’s Vanishing Tobacco Barns

Carolina’s Vanishing Tobacco Barns


Once Native American introduced it to European colonists, tobacco quickly became a cash crop  in Virginia, Maryland and Carolina. Europeans smoked the stuff daily for pleasure, making it a highly profitable export.  It’s no coincidence that the crown molding ‘round the interior of Virginia’s legislative houses is sculpted in a motif of tobacco leaves.

But the primitive structures for curing tobacco were very different.  Built in the traditional form of log houses, 16th-century tobacco barns were 14 feet square, 20 feet tall buildings built from hand-hewn logs. Under a gable roof were four “rooms” of rafters made for hanging tobacco.

Grown in dark soil and cured by open wood fire, North Carolina tobacco originally had a naturally harsh and rich flavor not widely favored by Europeans.   Then in 1839, a slave in Caswell County nearly allowed a wood fire to die out. Rushing to rekindle it, he threw charcoal over the embers, raising the heat upward of 200 degrees. The accidental result:  bright yellow leaves and a smooth, mild tobacco.

After that, a brick furnace and metal flue-cure system was constructed to better regulate the high temperature required to attain the flavorful “bright leaf.”

“I’ve always felt that the form of flue-cure tobacco barns evolved in large measure out of the need for thermal efficiency to cure the maximum amount of tobacco with the least amount of fuel,” said Michael Southern, senior architectural historian in the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. 

Throughout the state, tobacco barn size and interior design varied little, but in the late 1800s, taller barns with frame construction were built in the coastal and southern plains. Roofs were adapted to accommodate large overhangs, or “sheds,” providing shade for farmers in the harsh southern climate.

“They were more scientific,” Michael said. “They had the advantage of generations of experimentation in finding the ideal balance between volume, fuel and labor requirements, and construction costs.”

Modern bulk curing has made the traditional flue-cure barn obsolete. Today there are fewer than 15,000 barns in the state, down from over 300,000 during the flue-curing peak. “Historic preservation exists on the mantra of adaptive use,” he said. “Barns don’t lend themselves to adaptive use without major renovations.”

“There’s a certain attitude against preserving the history due to tobacco and health problems,” Michael said. “When people realize there are only two barns left in the state, then they’ll want to preserve them. Rarity increases value.”

And as their usefulness of the past five centuries evaporates today, a question about the Carolina tobacco barn still lingers:  What becomes of form when there is no function to follow?

- With Cheryl Wilder

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10 Responses to “Carolina’s Vanishing Tobacco Barns”

  1. Who was the photographer?

  2. Photographer was the late North Carolina architect Ligon Flynn.

  3. Wonderful. That’s who I thought it was. He showed me his slide collection once when I visited him in Wilmington.

  4. Hey – I am trying to find a book (coffee table type) on the old barns in NC.. Do you know if anyone has done one?
    Thank you,

  5. Kurt,
    The architect who took the photos in this article has part of his collection in book format on You can have a book printed and sent to you in a few days. Search “tobacco barns” on their site and his is the first to come up.


  6. I am interested in finding someone who will renovate a tobacco barn and make it a working shop. Any suggestions? I am near Raleigh

  7. What type of wood are most of the 1900′s tobacco barns? Looks like heart pine or yellow pine probably?

  8. Does anyone know of someone who might want to sell their tobacco barn for the purpose of historic renovation, in the Charlotte, N. C. area or in Mecklenburg County?


  1. Tweets that mention Carolina’s Vanishing Tobacco Barns | Architects and Artisans -- - 02. Nov, 2010

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kim Weiss, mike welton. mike welton said: Carolina’s Vanishing Tobacco Barns: North Carolina’s flue-cured tobacco barns are all but forgotten vernacular gem… [...]