Barnstar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the use of barnstars within the Wikipedia community, see Wikipedia:Barnstars.
A barnstar (more properly barn star) is a decorative piece, often in the shape of a five-pointed star but occasionally in a circular "wagon wheel" style, used to adorn a barn. These are originally and most commonly seen in German and German-American farming communities. Having no structural purpose, they were mainly used for their general aesthetic appeal and were even considered lucky, akin to a horseshoe mounted over a doorway.[1]
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[edit] History
Barnstars were also meant to represent the mark of the builder, but became more frequently used for aesthetic purposes and were added to the building after construction was complete. [2] [3] Enthusiasts have traced a number of wooden barnstars to individual builders in the Pennsylvania area, where numerous examples can still be seen.[4]
Barnstars were used in the United States during the 1700s and as late as 1870 in Pennsylvania, where their popularity increased greatly following the Civil War. Their regular use preceded that time, however, and stars were commonplace on large buildings, particularly factories, in pre-war Richmond, Virginia.[1]
Barnstars remain a very popular form of decoration and modern houses are sometimes decorated with simple, metal, five-pointed stars which the makers describe as 'barn-stars'. They are often deliberately distressed or rusted, alluding to the traditional decoration.
[edit] Confusion with other adornments
On older buildings in the Pennsylvania Dutch area of the United States it is still possible to find barnstar-like building adornments which are painted, rather than wooden or metal, known as hex signs. Strictly speaking, they are defined apart from barnstars and visually bear only passing resemblance, but the two are often confused and their names are even regarded as interchangeable. [1] Some hex signs incorporate star shapes, while others may take the form of a rosette or contain pictures of birds and other animals.[5]
Other star-shaped objects, having a structural purpose and made of cast iron, wrought iron, or steel, were often used (and are occasionally still installed) as tie plates serving as the washers for tie rods on brick or other masonry-based buildings. They are easy to find in cities with substantial legacies of 18th- and 19th-century brick construction, such as Philadelphia. The tie-rod-and-plate assembly serves to brace the masonry wall against lateral bowing.
Some Wiki-based communities give their users an award called a "barn star", as a continuation of the "barn raising" metaphor. This originated on MeatballWiki[6]. The image that is frequently used for this purpose is actually a photo of one of the structural tie plates described above, not of a barn star proper. Some web designers have incorporated a similar barn star design into their project as Easter eggs.[7].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c http://www.the-artistic-garden.com/barn-star.html
- ^ Barn Stars in Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
- ^ Barn Dons Old Fashioned Stars. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
- ^ http://www.thebarnjournal.org/stories/story018/index.html
- ^ http://www.the-artistic-garden.com/hex-signs.html
- ^ Barnstar article at Meatball Wiki
- ^ "[Barnstar Subterfuge]"
