A round barn is a historic

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880 to 1920 represent the height of round barn construction.Auer, Michael J
The Preservation of Historic Barns
Preservation Briefs, National Park Service (October 1989). Retrieved 1 November 2013 Round barn construction in the United States can be divided into two overlapping eras. The first, the

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al era, spanned from 1850 to 1900. The second, the true circular era, spanned from 1889 to 1936. The overlap meant that round barns of both types,

polygonal In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two tog ...

and circular, were built during the latter part of the nineteenth century., (

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

), National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, NRIS Database, National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 8 February 2007 Numerous round barns in the United States are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

Round barns date to the 18th and early 19th century.

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

designed and built a sixteen-sided threshing barn at his Dogue Run Farm in

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

in 1793. (PDF), National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, NRIS Database, National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 8 February 2007 The first truly round barn in North America was constructed in 1826 at

Hancock Shaker Village Hancock Shaker Village is a former Shaker commune in Hancock and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It emerged in the towns of Hancock, Pittsfield, and Richmond in the 1780s, organized in 1790, and was active until 1960. It was the third of nineteen majo ...

. A few other round barns appeared on the American landscape before the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. Despite considerable publicity of the 1826 Shaker barn, the design did not become popular until the 1880s, when some agricultural colleges began to push the design as they taught progressive farming methods, based on the principles of industrial efficiency. It was between 1880 and 1920 that round barns were most popular in the United States, especially in the Midwest. Fountaingrove Round Barn

The rise in popularity and the promotion of round barns occurred surrounding the new focus on efficiency. The circular shape has a greater volume-to-surface ratio than a square barn. Regardless of size, this made round barns cheaper to construct than similar-sized square or rectangular barns because they required less materials. The structural stability is also enhanced over that of a typical

quadrilateral In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...

ly shaped barn. Simplified construction lacking elaborate

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

systems for the arched roof was also seen as an advantage. In the Midwest, particularly, the buildings were thought more resilient against prairie thunderstorms.Round Barns
University of Illinois Campus Tours, University of Illinois. Retrieved 7 February 2007 The interior layout of round barns was promoted as more efficient, since farmers could work in a continuous direction. In the days before mechanization, labor-saving features were a big selling point. The interest in round barns spread to California in the later 19th century and several were built there.

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

is home to the De Turk Round Barn, a well-preserved example built in the late 1870s by local settler and businessman Isaac De Turk.Fountain Grove
" ''City of Santa Rosa'', 2004–2006, official site. Retrieved 16 September 2007 Claims of round barn efficiency were overstated. The round barn never caught on as a standard barn, as some of those pushing the progressive, efficiency-based agricultural methods had hoped. The spread of machinery, especially with the

Rural Electrification Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2017, over 1 billion ...

program, eliminated the advantages of labor-saving designs that were more complicated to build, and the popularity of round barns faded. Regardless, numerous round barns were constructed during the period of popularity the design enjoyed, and a large number still stand today.

Round barn era

Octagonal

The "Octagonal Era" of round barn design stretched from about 1850 until 1900. Round barns, such as Washington's, were often multi sided in their earliest incarnations. Multi-sided round barns came in a variety of polygonal shapes, including layouts of six, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen sides. Polygonal barns constructed before the advent of

balloon framing Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is generally called ''mass wal ...

tended to have interior spaces that were more rectangular than circular.

True circular

The "True Circular Era" of round barn construction spanned from 1889 to 1936, overlapping the octagonal era and finally dwindling out as round barns fell out of popularity. True circular round barns began to rise as improvements in construction techniques made their design more practical. As balloon framing, circular

silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...

s and truly self-supporting roofs were developed, circular barns superseded polygonal structures and began to be built in greater number. Despite the gains in popularity for circular barns, polygonal barns continued to be built up through the height of the True Circular Era.

End of an era

By the 1920s round barn construction had begun to decline in some locations. In Illinois, the popularity of round barns was in part due to the

University of Illinois round barns The three University of Illinois round barns played a special role in the promotion and popularity of the American round barn. They are located in Urbana Township, on the border of the U.S. city of Urbana, Illinois and on the campus of the Univers ...

, and round barn construction had tapered off considerably. Several reasons have been given for the decline in the popularity of round barn designs. The standardization of the construction industry and the resulting decline in timber framing following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

is one possible reason. Another possibility is that the mechanization of American

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

was more suited to rectangular barn design.University of Illinois Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District
(PDF), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved 19 April 2007

Design

Designed in a distinctive circular shape, many of these barns were meant to take advantage of gravity to move hay from the

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

to the cow

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

below. In many cases, a

was constructed to rise up through the round barn's center. The round barn was promoted as a labor-saving design by agricultural colleges as a progressive way to house

dairy cattle Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species ''Bos taurus''. Historically, little distinction was mad ...

.Historic Barn Types
Taking Care of Your Old Barn, University of Vermont, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 7 February 2007 In the case of the

Pete French Round Barn The Pete French Round Barn, located near Burns, Oregon, United States, is a round barn listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The late 19th century barn was owned and constructed by cattle rancher Peter French; French trained horse ...

near

Frenchglen, Oregon Frenchglen is an unincorporated small village in Harney County, Oregon, United States. It is south of Burns on Oregon Route 205 and its population is approximately 12. Frenchglen is near Steens Mountain and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, an ...

, the barn was built with a rock wall around an inner stable area, and included a covered run around the wall where horses could be exercised during the harsh high desert winters. The earliest round barns tend to have several flat sides, usually twelve or sixteen. They also tend to be

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

-sided while the later round barns are more often faced with

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

or glazed

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

. The interior design of round barns shifted as well. The early round barns had cattle stanchions on the first floor with the whole of the loft used for hay and feed storage. Later barns possessed a central space which rose up from the ground level through the entire building. The cattle

stanchion A stanchion () is a sturdy upright fixture that provides support for some other object. It can be a permanent fixture. Types In architecture stanchions are the upright iron bars in windows that pass through the eyes of the saddle bars or horizo ...

s in this variation of round barn were arranged around a circular

manger __NOTOC__ A manger or trough is a rack for fodder, or a structure or feeder used to hold food for animals. The word comes from the Old French ''mangier'' (meaning "to eat"), from Latin ''mandere'' (meaning "to chew"). Mangers are mostly used in ...

on the lower level. Above the stanchion level a circular wagon drive allowed hay to be unloaded into the central mow as the wagon circled the perimeter. The final stage of interior design in round barns included a

storage silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...

through the center of the structures. These were not really added until silos became fixtures of American farms. Sometimes the central silo would project up through the roof. Some round barns were built with hay hoods. with Advantages and disadvantages claimed for round barns are quite numerous.

Influences

It is known that prominent agricultural colleges began to promote the design technique as round barns came to prominence. However, the provider of the initial impetus is the subject of some debate. In 1848

Orson Fowler Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was an American phrenologist and lecturer. He also popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century. Early life The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he w ...

published ''A Home For All: Of the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building,'' extolling the virtues of the octagonal shape in home construction. The book included a discussion on use of the shape in barns and other outbuildings. The book generated a flurry of octagonal home construction, especially in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

and

Middle Atlantic Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek (d ...

states. Some researchers have linked the earliest round barn constructions with Fowler's popular book because so many of the early round barns assumed the octagonal shape. Other historians discount Fowler's influence on the beginning of the round barn era in the United States. Soike asserts that Fowler did not have any direct connection with any octagonal round barns. He noted that the octagon had ceased to be the basis for building constructions by the Civil War. In

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, for example, 219 round barns were constructed between 1850 and 1936; of those, 67 were polygonal, including 17 eight-sided barns built after 1900. An old belief that the barns were round to keep the devil from hiding in the corners may have helped drive the popularity of round barn construction.Fulton County Historical Society In the Midwest, especially in Illinois, the round barns at the University of Illinois led to an increase in the style's popularity statewide. This was partly due to the University of Illinois's Agricultural Experiment Station's publishing regular "Bulletins". The ''Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin'' coupled with an article by H.C. Crouch touting round barns in the ''Illinois Agriculturalist'' led to the construction of round barns across the state.

Anecdotal evidence Anecdotal evidence is evidence based only on personal observation, collected in a casual or non-systematic manner. The term is sometimes used in a legal context to describe certain kinds of testimony which are uncorroborated by objective, independ ...

of the impact of the University of Illinois round barns can be collected from farmers today. Stories about fathers and grandfathers recollect round barns being constructed on account of what was going on "over at the University".

Rochester, Indiana Rochester is a city in, and the county seat of, Fulton County, Indiana, United States. The population was 6,218 at the 2010 census. History Rochester was laid out in 1835. The founder Alexander Chamberlain named it for his former hometown of R ...

, county seat of

Fulton County Fulton County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. Most are named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first practical steamboat: *Fulton County, Arkansas, named after Governor William Savin Fulton *Fulton County, Georgia *F ...

, hosts the annual Round Barn Festival in early June to assert Fulton County's status as the "Round Barn Capital of the World". The city also houses the Round Barn Golf Club at Mill Creek, whose clubhouse is in the renovated Gerig Round Barn.

Distribution of round barns

There are about 20 surviving historic round barns in Canada. The United States has several hundred. In Europe, round barns are common, but there are some notable ones much older than those in North America.

Notes

External links

Efficiency of the Round barn
Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Eighteenth Biennial Report, 1911–12, pp. 139–42.

Official site
Sleuthing for Clues
article covering reconstruction effort of Washington's round barn. Mount Vernon Estate and Garden
Reconstructing the Round Barn at Fort Crook Museum. Fall River Mills, California
* http://www.theredmile.com/redmile/our-track/virtual-tour/round-barn {{DEFAULTSORT:Round Barn Round barns, Barns *Barns Rotundas (architecture) Agricultural buildings