Packing House
In places where specialized fruit culture developed, such as the Lake Erie shore and Adams County fruit belts, farm packing houses (sometimes called packing barns) can be found. Most examples found in fieldwork and in period illustrations were sited near the roadway. Large doorways with either sliding or hinged doors admitted wagons piled high with containers, full or empty. Most packing barns had rows of first-floor window to provide the light necessary for the work of sorting and packing. Special tables allowed workers a space in which to sort fruit in manageable quantities. At other tables, packers carefully placed the fruit in labeled containers for market, usually with uniform weights or volumes. These containers were then loaded onto a fruit wagon (later a truck bed) for transport.
Some farm packing barns had loft space to store empty containers in the off-season. But in Erie County especially, some gave over a second story to worker housing.
Packing barn, Erie County, mid 20th century.
The lower level was used for packing and the upper level for living quarters.
Packing house, Adams County, c. 1930.
In this example, the upper level was used for storing bushel baskets for apple picking.
Note
This is a static, archived version of the PHMC Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project website which will not be updated. It is a snapshot of the website with minor modifications as it appeared on August 26, 2015.
Pages in this Section
- Overview
- House Types
- Barn Types
- Barn Features
- Outbuilding Types
- Overview
- Bake Oven
- Butcher House
- Carriage House
- Cider House
- Combination Structure
- Cook House
- Corn Crib
- Dryhouse
- Fruit Cold Storage
- Garage
- Grain Bin
- Granary
- Greenhouse
- Hay Drying Shed
- Hog House
- Horse Barn
- Ice House
- Machine Shed
- Maple Sugar House
- Milk House
- Packing House
- Potato Storage Cellar
- Poultry Housing
- Privy
- Roadside Stand
- Root Cellar
- Scale House
- Shed
- Silo
- Smokehouse
- Spray Shed
- Springhouse
- Summer Kitchen
- Wagon Shed
- Wash House
- Wood Shed
- Worker Housing
- Workshop
- Landscape Elements
- Archaeological Features