The Urbain Cote Round Barn near

Dunseith, North Dakota Dunseith ( ) is a city in Rolette County, North Dakota, Rolette County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Dunseith is best known for its proximity to the International Peace Garden. ...

, United States, is a

round barn A round barn is a historic barn 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 th ...

that was built in 1943. It was 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 ...

in 1986. (pages 27-28 in North Dakota Round Barns TR) and

History

The owners, the Cote family, were

French-Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...

immigrants from

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (also the Eastern provinces or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of the Hudson Bay/Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labrador, ...

who immigrated and purchased the farm in 1943 and built the barn the same year. In the years before World War II, the Cotes specialized in barn construction; they modeled the barn after the Levi Glick Round Barn in Surrey, 100 miles southwest of Dunseith. The Glick barn was built in 1923 with hollow clay tile walls and a central silo. The Cotes Barn was constructed of masonry walls, "double mow floor, gracious stairway, decorative shingling, lack of interior silo, and opposing dormers for ventillation." It is significant due to its dual use of housing cattle on the first floor and dances on the second. Its hay loft floor has "double floor boards, an unusual expenditure of materials in hay loft floors. The barn was used by roller skaters during the 1950s and shows little wear or sagging." The Cotes were reportedly so proud of the barn, they shingled the domed roof with eight different colors of shingles. In a 1976

State Historical Society of North Dakota The State Historical Society of North Dakota is an agency that preserves and presents history through museums and historic sites in the state of North Dakota. The agency operates the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, which serves as a hist ...

survey, the barn was identified as the only surviving barn of its type. A 1986 survey about round barn locations found it to be the barn "most frequently mentioned". In 2000, the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the National Park Service provided a grant to restore and re-shingle the roof and restore the barn doors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cote, Urbain, Round Barn Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in North Dakota Infrastructure completed in 1943 Canadian-American culture in North Dakota French-Canadian American history Round barns in North Dakota National Register of Historic Places in Rolette County, North Dakota 1943 establishments in North Dakota