Early farmers painted their barns with a protective coating of linseed oil to keep the wood from weathering. They often mixed the oil with animal blood or ferrous oxide, which prevented the growth of mold and fungi and also gave the paint a distinctive red-orange color. Today, most barns are painted red to honor this tradition.
What does the color of a barn mean?
Most barns in early America were red due to the specific rot-deterring ingredients farmers added to their homemade paints; the color did not hold any particular meaning. Later, when paints were being widely manufactured, red paint was often the cheapest to produce, and thus red continued to be the most common color for barns. During this period, a barn that was painted some other color (typically white) was considered a sign of economic status. Today, most barns in America are still painted red out of tradition.
The tradition of painting barns red has a history dating back to the 1700s, and a number of superstitions and folk theories have arisen to explain it. These theories include a belief that red helps cows find their way home from the pasture, or that the red color keeps bulls distracted (in reality, cattle are red-green colorblind). Another theory proposes that the practice of painting barns red originated with Dutch immigrant farmers, who wanted to give their wooden farm structures a brick-like appearance. In their native homeland, brick buildings would have been a sign of wealth, and so the first Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania brought with them their tradition of painting their barns red, planting red flowers, and even breeding red-colored cattle. The theory then goes that other early American farmers may have followed suit and started painting their barns red to mimic the russet colored farm buildings introduced by the Dutch settlers. In reality, these early colonial farmers likely had a much more practical reason for painting their barns red.
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