ROCHESTER, Ind. – The round barn is disaapearing from the Midwest landscape. 

Luckily, The Fulton County Historical Society (FCHS) in Indiana has established a National Round Barn Center of Information to collect information on round barns and help find ways to save them. In 1989, the Fulton County Round Barn Museum moved and restored a round barn built in 1924 and converted it into a museum, which commemorates the county’s role in round barn history. The museum has horse-drawn farm equipment, buggies and covered wagons from the early 1900s.

“If we don’t save some of these barns, people won’t know what all this historic architecture looked like,” said Melinda Clinger, director of the Fulton County Museum in Rochester.

Clinger said Fulton County’s round barns were built from 1900 to 1925, with the Kindig Construction Co. building 11 of the original 17. They varied in size, she said, with the largest measuring 70 feet in diameter. The Round Barn Museum is 60 feet in diameter with two stories.

Clinger said round barns became a popular alternative to the traditional timber barn because they were “faster, easier and cheaper to build.”

“You didn’t have to go to a sawmill and have a 70-foot beam sawed,” she said. “Most of the barns are made of one-inch-thick green lumber, or they could soak it in the creek to make it pliable and bend like they needed it to.”

Round barns rose in popularity during the late 19th century, particularly in the Midwest. These barns were constructed primarily from 1889 to 1936.

The circular shape of the barns offered a greater volume-to-surface ratio, making them cheaper to construct and more resilient against prairie thunderstorms. The interior layout was promoted as more efficient, allowing farmers to work in a continuous direction.

Fewer than 1,400 round barns are estimated to have been built around the turn of the last century, mostly in the Midwest. George Washington had a 16-sided structure on his Mount Vernon estate, but it was New Yorker Elliot W. Stewart’s octagonal barn built in 1874 that really started the wheels turning on round barns. Low cost for construction and larger interior volume were Stewart’s reasons for going round.

Benton Steele, a well-known architect and builder, is credited with building the first round barn in Indiana in 1903. Steele didn’t stop at the borders of the state, though, and helped build three round barns in Marshall County, Kan., in 1906, 1913 and 1914.

Round barns were used to stabilize dairy cattle, as their round design made it easier to feed livestock in the middle of the barn. The round barns had an influence on modern bar design. The modern-day grain silo took much of its inspiration from the round shape of traditional round barns.

Perhaps Indiana might be the round barn capital of the world. At one time Indiana was home to about 225 round barns, and Fulton County claimed 17 of those. Today, the state’s number has dwindled to just under 100 barns, and the county claims seven.

The height of the round barn building boom was 1910, when more round barns were built in Indiana than any other year. The last round barn built in Indiana was in 1936.

By the 1920s, round-barn construction had begun to decline. One reason is the mechanization of American agriculture was more suited to rectangular barn design.

Round barns are an endangered species. Several are disappearing each year. They cost too much to repair and the big modern farm tractors and machinery won’t fit through the doors. The neglected barns are succumbing to wind, weather and fire and many are being torn down.

Old round barns that do survive the wrecking ball have been turned into other purposes, such as theaters, restaurants, museums, club houses, antique shops and more.

Although no longer being built, the round and polygonal barns are of special interest and beauty. Many groups are working to preserve as many barns, both square and round, as possible. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Successful Farming magazine established the Barn Again! program. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana conducts regional workshops to help spread the word that old barns can have a new and useful life, both on the farm and off.