Leesburg, Virginia

George Carter, a descendent of a well-established Virginia family, formed Oatlands Plantation in 1798 on 3,408 acres of farmland. Using enslaved African American labor, the farm grew from its original focus on wheat production, expanding through the 1830’s . The Carter Barn, built around 1821, is a sign of that expansion. The barn itself is a brick and timber bank barn, and part of a complex that also includes a fieldstone ice house and an early 20th-century wood dairy.

The barn remained an outbuilding on the Oatlands property, not regularly used or open to visitors. Although remarkably sound after nearly 200 years, the structure exhibited deterioration commensurate with its age. In addition to localized conditions including mortar loss, step cracking, and rotting wood, the primary elevation of the barn exhibited pronounced brick deterioration including efflorescence, scaling, spalling, pulverization and total loss.

In response, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Oatlands, Inc. initiated an ambitious plan for stabilization and interpretation of the barn. Conservation Solutions, Inc. (CSI) was contracted to a comprehensive assessment of the barn. Materials were thoroughly surveyed, assessed and documented, and likely causes of deterioration identified. A materials testing program was targeting towards identifying the likely types, sources, and mechanisms of salt weathering. Through carefully targeted analysis, CSI was able to identify salts related to prior agricultural and construction-related processes, and demonstrated that they entered the building through soil inappropriately banked against the main elevation. Based upon these findings, CSI presented options for conservation treatments and repair materials.

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