Production on The Barn Raisers took us on a long journey through the country roads of the Midwest to capture footage of all kinds of barns and the stories of their builders. We met farmers, storytellers, builders, historians, barn detectives and preservationists in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas.
Not surprising, our filming put us on the path to several magnificent round barns with fascinating histories. In her interview for The Barn Raisers, author and photographer Nancy Schumm-Burgess (Wisconsin Barns) referred to the round barns as the "sexy barns". She is right. We found fewer round barns than conventional barns on the Midwestern rural landscape, but they are restored at a higher rate due to their unique and appealing design.
To order Fourth Wall Films' award-winning The Barn Raisers on DVD, click HERE!
Round barns hit their stride in constuction between the 1880s and 1920s. Prominent agricultural colleges promoted the round barn design for its efficiency--touting the circular shape had a greater volume-to-surface ratio than a square barn.
The Kansas State Board of Agriculture, included the efficiency of the round barn in its Eighteenth Biennial Report, 1911-1912 and applauded the research by the College of Agriculture -University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign:
"The Illinois authorities have conducted innumerable tests pertaining to the efficiency of the round barn; they have built two of these barns on the grounds of the college farm, and for several years have utilized them with great success as quarters for live stock and to provide storage room for grain and hay. The results of their detailed investigations show that the circular structure is much stronger; that the rectangular form requires twenty-two percent more wall and foundation to enclose the same space; and that the cost of material is from thirty-four to fifty-eight per cent more for the rectangular building. The round barn offers greater convenience in storing, handling and distributing the feed while much greater strength is secured with less lumber than is possible in the case of the rectangular building."
"Typically, a round barn would have a silo in the center, livestock on the ground floor, and a large hay loft on the upper floor. Ideally, the barn would be built on a small incline to allow farmers to drive a wagon with hay into a haymow on top on the incline while cattle could be driven from the pasture into the bottom of the barn for milking or storage," notes ExploreCU.org. "The round shape of the barns allowed for greater wind resistance, important in Midwestern prarielands."
Wilber John Fraser, former Professor of dairy husbandry and Chief of Dairy Husbandry in the Agricultural Experiment Station at the College of Agriculture -University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, argued that "the shape and arrangement of round barns allowed for greater efficiency, and thus decreased labor. Feed and mow for cattle was dropped down an interior chute or center silo to cattle below."
The round barn never quite caught on. They were more complicated to build and the spread of machinery eliminated the advantages of the "labor-saving designs".
The few that remain are stunning to see and one cannot help but stand in awe of the work that went into building them, and the farming stories that still echo inside.
To order Fourth Wall Films' award-winning The Barn Raisers on DVD, click HERE!
Following an interview with Barn Lady Pamela Whitney Gray (author of Ohio Barns and Americanization of the Family Farm, we discovered this beautiful Ohio round barn with very photogenic horses snacking in the foreground.
A Vernon County, Wisconsin round barn built by African-American builder, Algie Shivers. Shivers' work is featured in The Barn Raisers.
Featured in The Barn Raisers, "The Foley/Reece barn was the first of only five round barns built in Kansas by Benton Steele, the foremost designer, builder and promoter of round barns at the time," said Jon Reece, who, with his wife Terri, restored the historic barn for events and weddings. It is located Derby, Kansas at Round Barn Ranch.
The J.H. Manchester Round Barn located between Roundhead
Situated on a hill on their scenic farm outside of Davenport, Iowa sits a rare round barn built by architect Benton Steele. It is a treasure and the pride of owners John and Marlene Penne. The Nebergall Round Barn is featured in The Barn Raisers.
To order Fourth Wall Films' award-winning The Barn Raisers on DVD, click HERE!
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