Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 10: BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Poultry Houses
c.1914 – c.1953

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TAGS: chickens, chicken houses, poultry farming, chicken coops, animal husbandry, egg baskets, William Hayes, shed-roof poultry houses, commercial poultry farming, chicken ‘n dumplin’s

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BUILT ENVIRONMENT Poultry Houses, c. 1914 – c. 1953

The Chicken House actually consisted of multiple chicken houses built to provide shelter for the many chickens that have come and gone to dumplings at Pine Mountain. It was the intent of many of the School’s staff to have a ready supply of eggs and that chicken-and-dumplings be available to entertain when there may be visitors to the campus.

POULTRY HOUSES: Early Days

The first houses were a series of small board and batten structures that were gathered within a fenced off area. Here the chickens could roam in the yard by day but be protected by night and have a place to lay eggs that would stay clean and easy to locate. These small “coops” were very efficient for small-scale chicken farming, but when the flocks became larger, so did the chicken houses. However, as seen above, there was a reversion to the small individual chicken houses in the 1940s and “scratch” corn feed was purchased in sacks rather than grown at the School.

Pine Mountain School maintained a large flock of chickens for both eggs and for chicken ‘n dumplin’s, a favorite meal. At first, only fences protected the flock. Later, chicken houses kept the flock safe from fox and other marauders and, like the Ayrshire herd, the flock was expanded and various chicken breeds were favored over others for their egg production or for their meat quality.

[From an early staff letter, undated, probably c. 1914 or 1916]

This spring we have at last a herd of cows and a dairy. Two weeks ago our six new cows and bull, all Jerseys, were sent up from the Bluegrass, and today we had our first dessert made entirely of milk and eggs. We have a large chicken house and two incubators and have raised fifty-six chickens from the first batch. Two hundred more Leghorns are to come in from the out­-side world, and we think that by the end of the summer we will have 400 chickens. One worker devotes all her time to the care of the poultry and she has the most intelligent assistance from one of our older boys, age 15.

And, in the notes of Evelyn Wells‘ History (unpublished), the following paragraph:

In this department too we have had to work through a period of trying out delicate stock, the whole flock being white Leghorns when we first filled our new chicken houses in 1917, from eggs hatched in Miss Fawcett’s incubators. We do know that Rhode Island Reds are far more practical for us, and after years of experimenting have settled down to a very healthy and successful, if somewhat expensive flock of hens.

As poultry farming became more standardized, it also become more expensive. The first poultry flocks and their houses were modest in comparison to later houses, but all poultry house-types serve as visible records of the changes in small rural agricultural practice from the beginning of the twentieth century to its mid-point in the 1950s when industrial production of eggs and poultry became widespread.

POULTRY HOUSES: End of an Era

While poultry farming had always played a role in supplying the School with eggs and poultry meat, the farm later turned to egg production as a commercial endeavor. But, the commercial production of eggs, like other farming practices in the 1950s proved to be too complicated in the tightly controlled markets. By 1953, poultry farming became a poor marketing venture for the School. The open markets could produce eggs more cheaply for the consumer and regulations that limited the sale of poultry meat through the free market system spelled an end to Pine Mountain’s sale of poultry and eggs through that means. By 1953, farming on a large scale at the School came to a close and the end of poultry production marked the end of that era.

Yet, of all the farming initiatives, chickens proved to be the longest lived of the animal husbandry practices. This may have been due to the fact that chickens are relatively easy to manage and the yield in eggs over the life of the hen can be considerable. Even today fresh eggs from chicken flocks are a part of many households in the Pine Mountain community.

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Gallery: POULTRY HOUSES

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See Also:
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
BUILT ENVIRONMENT Architectural Planning POULTRY HOUSE 1942
DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH VI – Poultry

Return To:
BUILT ENVIRONMENT Guide

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Title	Chicken Houses
Alt. Title	Chicken House ; Poultry House ;
Identifier	CHICKEN HOUSES
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Chicken House ; chicken houses ; Pine Mountain Settlement School ; Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; chickens ; dumplings ; eggs ; board and batten ; coops ; poultry farming ; corn feed ; standardization ; industrial production ; commercial ; open markets ; regulations ; animal husbandry ; chicken ‘n dumplin’s ; fencing ; dairy cows ; Jerseys ; incubators ; Leghorns ; Evelyn Wells ; Miss Fawcett ; Rhode Island Reds ; William Hayes ; farm managers ; egg baskets ; hickory bark ; local crafts ;
Subject LCSH	Chicken House(s) — Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Architecture — Pine Mountain Settlement School. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History Vernacular architecture — Kentucky. Historic Buildings — Kentucky — Appalachia. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Schools — Appalachian Region, Southern. Students — Pine Mountain Settlement School. Student labor — Pine Mountain Settlement School. Harlan County, Kentucky — Farming. Harlan County, Kentucky — Farming, poultry. Campus life — Pine Mountain Settlement School. Harlan County, Kentucky — Health care. Schools, settlement — Pine Mountain Settlement School. Harlan County, Kentucky — Schools, settlement.
Date	2013-09-16
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Contributor	n/a
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of JPG images, documents, and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet
Source	Series 10: Built Environment (Physical Plant)
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 10: Built Environment (Physical Plant) ; Kentucky Virtual Library collections <http://www.kyvl.org/> [searchable] Berea College Southern Appalachian Archives <http://www.berea.edu/library/Special/saarchives.html> Transylvania College Archives <http://www.transy.edu/libspcoll.html> Univ. of KY Appalachian Archives <http://libraries.uky.edu/libpage.php?lweb_id=84&llib_id=13> National Historic Landmarks Database <http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1756&ResourceType=District>
Coverage Temporal	c. 1914 – c. 1953
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers about Chicken House(s) ; clippings, photographs, books about Chicken House(s) ;
Acquisition	Various dates between c. 1914 and c. 1953
Citation	Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated	2013-09-16 hhw ; 2014-05-14 aae ; 2016-04-17 hhw ; 2023-03-01 aae ; 2023-05-30 hhw
Bibliography	Source Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Archival material.

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BUILT ENVIRONMENT

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