Outbuildings are key parts of any farm, providing storage, workspaces, and animal housing. Early pioneers mainly used logs to build farm structures, but later materials, such as stone, timber, brick, and manufactured goods, were also used. Common outbuildings included barns, smokehouses, granaries, corncribs, and chicken houses.

Smokehouses, often near kitchens, preserved food and were built with logs to hold in the smoke and heat. Storage cellars, dug into hillsides, kept root vegetables cool year-round, with some built over springs to store dairy. Icehouses stored ice from ponds, packed in sawdust, before electric refrigeration.