The design of the tobacco barn utilizes many long, vertical, straight lines since the heat provided for curing the crop traveled upward. The straight sides also provided maximum utilization of space by allowing efficient, orderly placement of the racks of tobacco so that heat flowed evenly through each rack of the leaf. Various colors used for the barn help to distinguish one from another and largely represent available building materials at the time of their construction. The barn was not created as an art object but as an essential component to curing the tobacco crop. As an art object, color and texture help to enhance viewing of the barn.
Architectural pattern is consistent in the vertical functional lines of the barn.
The exception is the block pattern of the concrete block barn and the horizontal pattern created by the very old log barns. The weight and shape of logs prohibited their use for vertical construction. Placed vertically logs would have been difficult to unite and would not have provided adequate structural support. Time and motion are very apparent in the study of tobacco barns. Viewing photographic illustrations one can see a span of at least half a century and the evolution of a farm culture from active to inert.