The name “pole barn” stems from the 1930s. Due to a disrupted economy from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, farmers turned to the most cost-efficient materials they could to construct new buildings: recycled telephone poles. These “telephone pole barns” were shortened to simply “pole barns,” and ushered in a new era of American pole barns.

The name "pole barn" comes from the 1930s. A disrupted economy due to the Great Depression and Dust Bowl forced farmers in rural communities to use recycled telephone poles as their primary building materials. The farmers back then called them "telephone pole barns."