Harley Warrick Mail Pouch Barns

Mail Pouch barns were regular barns that were hand painted in the 1950's-60's with advertisements for mail Pouch chewing tobacco. . They were painted on the barns in such a way that people driving down the highway would see the advertisement. The farmers sometimes was paid a small sum of money to allow the advertisement to be placed on their barn. Sometimes they were given free samples, or free paint jobs for their barns.

In 1960's, the mail pouch painted barns were declared historical, so that with a new law that banned tobacco advertisements on billboards and television, the barns didn't have to be painted over or worse torn down. Many barns were destroyed during this time.

The most well known painter of Mail Pouch barns was Harley Warrick. During his 55 year career, it is estimated that he painted the advertisements on over 20,000 barns over his lifetime. He was able to finish one barn in under 4 hours after he got the hang of it. He never used stencils, he just painted. The barns that he has painted can still be seen standing today in many parts of Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

While many of the barns that were painted are now gone, due to deterioration, there are still some around, some have been maintained by their owners, and are still in nice condition. Luckily for us, allot of people saw the beauty in the barns, that were painted and took photographs of them. Fred Yenerall was one of the people that did just that. He took photos of the mail pouch barns through out the 1960's and 70's. Some of his photos are of barns no longer standing today. The only way to see what

Harley Warrick died in, his headstone showed what he was famous for here . Harley wasn't the only one with Mail Pouch barns on the headstones, this shows another headstone with the mail pouch barn on.

Harley Warrick died in 2000, at the age of 76, but his mail pouch logo painting will live on, one sample can be seen in the Smithsonian, which probably has his signature and date at the bottom right hand corner, just like he did on the barns.

The photos of the mail pouch barns are not only shown on http://www.fmyphotos.com/ but also many can be seen on http://www.ohiobarns.com/, where they have other barns photos also from many different states, as well as articles about barns, and Harley Warrick.