Regular readers to my blog have seen previous posts of what we know in the Eastern United States as Mail Pouch Barns. A Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn, or simply Mail Pouch Barn, is a barn with one or more sides painted from 1890 to 1992, in advertisement for the West Virginia Mail Pouch chewing tobacco company (Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company), based in Wheeling, West Virginia. However, they can be found in many states and as far west as California. Many have been demolished or are falling down. Initially, barn owners were paid between $1 and $2 a year for the advertisement, equivalent in 1913 dollars to about $20-$40 today.
The Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which sought to restrict the vast number of local advertisements that were being placed near highways, exempted Mail Pouch barns since they had been deemed historic landmarks.
Look closely at the barn in the photo. Can you guess what you see hanging there? It is tobacco leaves hung to dry. On a recent trip to my Mom's house I took a back route and came upon this barn. Of course I wanted to photograph the graphics but on closer observation I saw the tobacco. This scene is not typical in my area so it was a surprise to find.
The barn in the above photo was in a curve in the road and no evident place to pull off and take a picture. I was looking for a place to turn around and go back and this red barn was beside the highway with a large turn around in front of it. As I pulled beside of it I noticed it too was storing tobacco leaves.
This is a closeup of the leaves. Since they are a brownish color they have probably been drying for several weeks.
57 comments:
Love these old barns. Thanks for preserving some of their beauty in a post.
Good to see the barns are still up and running. Side question: is tobacco grown for any other uses that smoking-related products? Just curious.
Carletta, your photos are wonderful! I love to see such an old and lovely barn. There was a time when I would have been real happy to see those tobacco leaves - I'm a smoker whose been quit almost 4 years! :)
I love old barns as well. It's very interesting the history of these barns. I hope they continue to preserve them.
Thanks for the tour.
A totally new idea to me these barns and the contents. Strange to my eyes, but in a n interesting way.
Beautiful old barn, don't find too many like this any more! Thank you!
Wonderful shots of the tobacco drying. I love old barns and the Mail Pouch barns always bring back thoughts of the past when you see them.
Great barn shots, thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Regina In Pictures
Good one. Two barns is fantastic and one red and one a Mail Pouch is better than peanut butter. Can you find one of those barns? A peanut barn? :)
This sight looks familiar... some of my paternal relatives work in a tobacco farm, too, and they have this special place for the tobacco.
My Ruby Tuesday entries are posted here and here. Drop by if you have the time. Happy Tuesday!
Carletta: That certainly reminds me of my youth with so many barns painted with the Mail Poch sign. They only painted one side of the barn which I always found interesting.
Wonderful old barns. Interesting that they are still dying tobacco. We had a barn with a picture on the end facing the road.
We still have some tobacco barns up and operating in this area, well the season is over but in season...Very good shots of your old barns.
I didn't know that Mail Pouch was made in WV. The red barn is a classic, too. In northern CT, there is still tobacco leaf grown. It is cigar wrapper leaf, among the finest wrapper anywhere (I don't smoke 'em, so I cannot say if true...). near the Hartford airport, there are many large red leaf tobacco drying barns along the highway. But not so many barns, the land around there supporting such things a Honda warehouse and FedEx. Not as valuable as farmland these days, I'm afraid...
That's fascinating. I didn't know any of that about the Mail Pouch barns. And being raised on the west coast, I know next to nothing about growing tobacco.
Very cool!
I didn't know what those barns were called...Thank you!
New Rambling Woods Site
Barns are my absolute favorite. Great shots!
Hi Carletta,
What a great ruby barn. The tobacco hanging there looks so harmless :0)
Hope your turkey is thawing...
Cool MyWorld post! I've seen lots of those barns. I always figure the farmers were paid for the advertising, but had no idea of the details.
other fantastic post with beautiful photos. Thank you!
Tobacco... I quit smoking 9 months and 18 days ago, but who's counting? ;)
Tink *~*~*
My Mobile Adventures *~*~*
Tobacco leaves? Sound interesting to me since i have not seen before...
Hi Carletta, these old barns are a big draw! We saw some in W.Va. on our 'scenic' drive when we got off the Interstate. I always look for things in the barns, I can't remember seeing tobacco since Georgia way back.
Happy RRtU!
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My Ruby Tue post is over here.
Had to come back to admire your old barn some more. Thanks.
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Still teaching. I always learn something new and interesting. I'd never seen tobacco hanging like that before. Very interesting. And I love old barns.... I enjoy your world very much.
i remember seeing barns like this on a visit to Philadelphia a few years ago. they're really beautiful!!
What a great and interesting post! And unless I hear another song before going to sleep Tobacco Road will be playing in my head as I drift off. :-D Great song for the post.
Love the barns and how interesting about the tobacco. Not something grown out this way. MB
How fascinating, so very different from my own world. Old barns have so much character and dignity to them.
My feed reader gave me this post on Sunday, but wouldn't let me click through to your blog. Finally I can click through to your blog and everybody else has already been here telling you that you always have the very best photos! (It's true you know.)
I have never seen anything like it!! Lovely old barn and interesting tobacco leaves.
Hi, I just found your blog. Interesting that you post about the Mail Pouch Barns, on my site I have two postings with pictures of the Mail Pouch tobacco barns in my area. I even have a picture of the main building in Wheeling. I live in rural WV, and I love barns.
You have done well showing the barns through the post.
Thanks for this view of your world, very nice pictures ofthis old barn
I quit using many, many years ago, but I still love the smell of real tobacco. I sometimes go into humidors in cigar shops just to sniff for a while. Thanks for these wonderful photos. Pappy
The tobacco barns are so appealing. They are a big part of the history of my area too although I'm glad the tobacco farmers are changing over to other crops. I know it has been hard for many but NC has lent some support to farmers making the change. You took some great shots.
At first I thought it's corn hanging in there.
We have barns like that all over Ohio. I don't think they are tabacco like yours, but they are beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving :o)
Never seen any of these Mail Pouch Barns here in New England. I can never get enough photos of barns.
Great old barns and your photos are outstanding. When we travel, I keep my eye open for them.
Oh, Carletta, you don't know what memories this post brings. I have got to make sure Neal sees it. I raised tobacco all my life and wish I had more pictures from it. I have a few...been wanting to do a post about it for a long time. Even though I don't smoke or anything, and I really don't see how anyone does that has fooled with the stuff, this post brought back some good memories.
Interesting! The barn looks nice!~Happy RT!
Cheers,
Yen
Most interesting. The wind must stir the fragrance of the leaves and waft them across the road.
Wonderful post.
Great shots! Really like the close-up of the tobacco. Nice to see the old barn still being used.
wonderful history and how cool to see an actual in use tobacco barn!
All the shots are beautiful!!
the photos of the tobacco are so artistic looking.
Carletta,
These are great barn pics! I love ALL barns-and the older the better! :)
I remember those tobacco barns!
( With all that's been happening with me, I have not been doing any of the picture challenge posts for a few weeks! Hope to get back with some of them soon!)
Junie
i love your barns. and the tobacco leaves are an added bonus :)
What a lovely barn Carletta, and so nice to read it's history!
Carletta, those pictures really bring back memories. I'd like to know how many sticks of tobacco I cut and hung in the barn when I was growing up. Rose or I have never used tobacco in any way but it's the only way we had to make any money when we were kids. Even though I don't like it, it's probably what kept us kids from starving to death. Here is a picture of our dad carrying tobacco.
Cool barns. I know Missouri has similar ones still. I've never seen drying tobacco leaves. Interesting.
Wow, cool. So...it seems really labor intensive to dry it that way - do you know where it goes from this point forward?
Another post for the Carletta Tutorial ;)
loved reading your post today...and the photos were great.
have a good t-day
I love the shape of the the tobacco barns...and to think this one actually has tobacco drying in it!
I like the photo with the tobacco in the upper level of the red barn. It shows a glimpse into another world of experiencing and being.
Neat photos of these old historic barns. Very interesting post, Carletta.
Like Ralph said, we have tobacco farms still left in Connecticut, but I never photographed any of the barns there.
Happy Ruby Tuesday!
I remember Mail Pouch barns, but none with tabacco in them. Great photos and a nice bit of history.
Thanks for the little bit of history about the Mail Pouch barns. I've seen them for years but I never knew they were a Wheeling company.
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