JANUARY DESIGN INTERVENTION – Y is for Yoke

“Y” is the next to last installment in Gregg Scott’s 26-part series highlighting everyday architectural design elements found in and around Lancaster County and beyond.

Pronounced like the contents of an egg, this yoke is spelled differently and certainly behaves differently.  Yoke has many definitions, most notably the heavy wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals to help pull a plow or cart.  Another variation of a yoke is the crosspiece that rests behind the neck of a person from which buckets are suspended to carry water or other heavy loads.  Webster’s dictionary also gives the architect license to describe ‘something resembling or likened to a yoke’.

The illustrated architectural dictionary describes the word yoke as the decorative shroud or crosspiece above a window head.

To read the full digital version of the article printed from Lancaster Newspapers LNP CLICK HERE.