Old Canaan Building Materials

The weathervane is the oldest meteorological instrument in New England and one of the most visible details on any traditional building that has one. It tells wind direction. It also tells you something about the building and the person who put it there — the rooster on the barn, the whale on the coastal house, the horse on the gentleman's farm. It is not decoration. It is a functional object that has accumulated centuries of meaning.

A traditional copper weathervane is hand-hammered from 16 to 20 ounce copper sheet, mounted on a directional rod with cardinal point indicators (N, S, E, W) and a pivot bearing that allows the vane to rotate freely in any wind. New, it is bright copper. Over years it develops the brown to verdigris patina of all exterior copper. At rooftop height the patina is driven by wind and rain, and the color is often more mottled and more accelerated than copper on a sheltered surface.

Traditional New England weathervane forms: the rooster (most common on barns and houses), the horse (gentleman's farms and estates), the whale (coastal communities), the arrow (universal), the cod (Cape Cod and fishing communities), the grasshopper (Faneuil Hall, Boston). The vane is mounted on a vertical rod through the peak of a cupola or directly through the ridge, with a ball finial at the pivot point and directional letters below the vane.

Copper weathervanes require no maintenance. The pivot bearing occasionally needs lubrication — a drop of light oil every few years keeps it rotating freely. Lightning protection: a weathervane on a cupola is a lightning rod by default. If the building does not have a lightning protection system, the weathervane should be connected to a ground rod by a copper conductor.

A copper weathervane on the appropriate building — the barn, the cupola, the traditional farmhouse — is correct in a way that no other roof ornament is. It has function. It has history. It reads as belonging to the building rather than applied to it.

E.G. Washburne and Company (Danvers, MA) has been making traditional copper weathervanes since 1853 and is the standard New England source. Custom forms are available from blacksmiths and copper fabricators. Specify 16 to 20 ounce copper, hand-hammered, with directional indicators.