Preservation

Other examples of rustic buildings that have been preserved, replicated, or documented:

• Wo Hing Museum and Cookhouse was burned  unfortunately

• Locke Boarding House

• Brittania Shipyards in Canada

• Oroville replica of a Chinese miner's shack and photo and Oroville Chinese temple

• Grass Valley mining town

• Chinatown in Lava Beds, Oregon.

• A Chinese Temple in Cambria and photos

• Chinese Workers at Central Pacific Railroad Section Station Camps, 1870−1900

• "Chinese Mining & Settlement at the Lava Beds, Ca."

Finding an expert in Preserving Single Wall Construction Buildings

Office of Historic Preservation

National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund Competitive Grant Sample Applications

APIAHiP

Single Wall Construction references

References on Single-Wall Construction and related

• "Load-Bearing Single-Wall Constructions from Shanties to SIPS" by Michael Obrien (short version)
  "The single-wall is thus an unusual structural system but can be seen in hundreds of structures across the United States, from New York State, through the southern coal and iron mining camps, across the oilfield communities in Texas and Oklahoma to the silver and gold mining camps in the Rockies and California, and even Hawaii."

• Obrien, Michael J. 2013. “Load-Bearing, Single-Wall Constructions from Shanties to Structural Insulated Panels.” Construction History 28, no. 1 (2013): 49–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43856027.
  "The 19th century saw many innovations in housing, most notably the balloon and platform framing methods that dominate low-rise housing construction in the U.S. to this day. But there was an alternative; from 1815 through the 1950’s whenever
  Americans needed semi-permanent shelter they built structures with simple thin boards acting simultaneously as structure and enclosure. These “shanties,” “box-houses,” “single-walls,” were built in New England canal towns, midwestern railroad camps, and as disaster relief camps following the great 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Thousands were likely built as housing, utility, and mercantile structures, perhaps hundreds remain in service today. But few design and construction professionals know of this construction method. This paper will present the principles of structure and a case study in construction. This little known mode of constructing shelter has great potential as second stage disaster recovery housing. It is durable, some lasting over 100 years, can be built with unskilled/semi-skilled labor with few tools and fasteners, and is easily flat-packed for shipping to disaster regions."

• Structural failures of single wall construction in a western mining town : Bodie, California Andrea Sue Morrison 1999. Suggestions of how to support buildings as they degrade.

• Box House - Vertical Plank Construction 

• Shelters, shacks, and shanties  Daniel Carter Beard 1914

Note From APIAHiP - On finding specialists: rustic agricultural buildings are a legitimate gap in the preservation profession. Your instinct is right. I'd suggest reaching out to the California Preservation Foundation and the California Office of Historic Preservation as starting points. The State Historic Preservation Office may also be able to refer you to preservation architects with relevant agricultural or vernacular building experience. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards apply across building types, but the practitioner's familiarity with this building type matters for treatment decisions.

Possible Sources of Funding

Office of Historic Preservation

National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund Competitive Grant Sample Applications

APIAHiP