Author: iowabarnbook

Rural chapel on White Pole Road. Since Milton Hollingsworth wanted to drive his carriage into the barn and not have supporting posts get in the way, the loft floor hung by iron rods from roof trusses above the loft, supported on posts within the exterior walls. Through doors on the south, north, or east sides he could enter, unhitch the horses, take them to the stalls on the west side, and leave the carriage positioned for its next use. 

Below left is a chute where grain was dropped from a storage bin located in the loft into a bucket placed below the chute, then taken to the feed troughs. On the right is an arched opening in each stall where hay was dropped into a feed box. 

How many carriage houses still exist in Iowa? No doubt many at one time, but not many today. This elegant 40-foot-square carriage house in Guthrie County, at the west edge of Stuart, was built in 1882. William Foster, a prominent Chicago architect, designed many Iowa and Nebraska buildings, including the State Penitentiary at Anamosa.

Pictured above are windows on the west side that provided a picturesque view for the horses. What a nice home they had. It is not in use now except to display barn history and photos of five generations of the Varley family with their Angus cattle. It’s a family treasure.

If one is lucky enough to discover graffiti inside a barn, it can add to our knowledge of a barn’s history.

Wilson Prall settled in Franklin Township of Cass County in 1857 and had Richardson build a barn barn for him in 1877. (See name and date in small print on the right.) The evidence remained intact until a storm destroyed the barn on July 3, 1980.

John Housewert arrived in Penn Township of Madison County and established Hickory Grove Farm, adding a barn in 1880. The name and date was later painted by Rose Housewert and is a reminder of its heritage. It will become a Heritage Farm in 2030 (150 years in the same family).

Today it has steel siding and a steel roof that will last for decades. The address is 1162 Fawn Avenue, Earlham. It is owned by Mary Koboldt, a great-granddaughter of the builder, and her husband Bruce. 

Barn, home, inn, and a school. On my visit to the Stange farm in 2016, Dennis, the self-proclaimed Mayor of Bridgeport, and his wife Janet, gave me a guided tour of this amazing place. (Bridgeport, with a post office from 1851-1873, was an early unincorporated village on a stage route between Dubuque and Davenport.)

This great barn, the pivotal point on this Jackson County farm, has been rented to a local farmer for calves for many years. A much earlier barn, used for horses and cattle and later for dairying, was destroyed by fire and was replaced by this one in 1943. Their home, built in 1890, is visible in the background. 

There’s more. On a wooded hillside overlooking the Maquoketa River is a two-story home or inn, possibly catering to travelers arriving in this area in the 1830s when it was still Iowa Territory. The Stanges purchased it when a family near Arthur was tearing down their home and discovered that it had been built around this log structure. They moved it 17 miles to their farm, restored it, and furnished it with period furniture. It is now a family treasure for gatherings at Christmas and other holidays.

There’s even more. At the top of the hill above their home is a Maquoketa Township brick school, later covered with stucco, built in the 1880s to replace an 1842 log school. Technically it was in Bridgeport, but it is now a part of the Stange farm. The school closed in 1954, but for 17 years, until there were safety concerns, students from local schools visited each year to learn about life in pioneer days. This family’s interest in historic preservation and dedication for educational opportunities for children is commendable.

Easter is a time to send greetings to friends and family, and to welcome spring. Rabbits, chicks, and lambs were very popular subjects for barn owners; cows and pigs not so common. Here are a few postcards that were sent over 100 years ago when Iowa was more rural, and families and friends were more likely to send greetings on holidays. No barns are featured today, but some of the subjects of the cards might have had a home in a barn. 

Greetings not in English are German (boy balancing eggs), Slovenian (boy and rabbits), and Ukrainian (girl and lambs).

A corncrib saga. A disappearing corncrib, or is it? This corncrib in Guthrie County, built by William Sheeder around 1900, was a most unusual corncrib, as it was a drive in/back out design. Otherwise, it would be like driving off a second story.

It IS a corncrib with storage on each side of the drive, with the open slats still visible, despite some color deterioration in the slide. It was not in use in 1980 when this photo was taken.

It got a new look when steel siding was added some years ago, which explains why it doesn’t look like a corncrib anymore. It was used for a few years for pigs and chickens, but when this photo was taken in 2013, it was being used for storage.

Great news! When driving past the farm in the fall of 2020 I noted that there is a new fence and it is again in use for calves. The location is west of Guthrie Center at 1769 Highway 44.

It’s an ornament? A huge tube with a roof, call it a silo, has sometimes been described as an “ornament” on a farm, but crucial to profitable livestock raising and dairying. Wood stave silos were once common in Iowa but very few exist today. This wood stave silo in Floyd County, photographed in 1980, is gone. 

However, even in 1977, wood silos were still quite numerous, although mostly in the eastern states. The Unadilla Silo Company from New York claimed that using wood for a silo sealed in the juices making them “sweeter,” had good insulating qualities, and could be used for various types of silage.

Silos built since wood was common are concrete, clay tile, or glass-fused steel. On August 2, 2015, a tornado on the Blazek farm at Williamson in Adams County destroyed these two Harvestore silos. They are now in the process of being dismantled. Harvestore silos are still in use, however, and some are over 60 years old.

The clay tile silo below in Marshall County is a tall vase of greens and is being saved for photographers.

A country church?  No, ordinary barns are sometimes extraordinary. This one in Monroe County looked like a country church, although country churches don’t ordinarily have louvered cupolas or two levels of windows. It was big: 110 ft x 45 feet. The horizontal row of windows directly over the large door was unique. A spiral stairway extended from the basement level to the main floor. An alley went the full length of the barn, with hay storage in the loft on both sides and a walkway that enabled passage from one side of the loft to the other.

Forty years ago, when this barn was researched, I found no one who could supply information about its history. It was in fragile condition and appeared to be abandoned when this photo was taken in 1980, and surely has been gone for many years.

Inside is the Painters Record, where there are at least four places painters left their marks at different times. W. E. Tyler left his signature three times and G. B. Tyler twice. Unfortunately many of the names are obscured, especially in the lower half of the record. The bottom line might have been the original name of the owner although it isn’t readable. (1980 photo)

The elegant home has a bell in a tower, obscured by the trees, to call hired men to dinner. It is not known whether the six second-floor bedrooms were used by the family or were available for the hired men. It is still occupied, although not in prime condition. Note the long sidewalk leading from the front door of the house to the barn.

Dog Creek grain bins—even the name is intriguing. At Dog Creek Park in O’Brien county you can enjoy biking, camping, boating, canoeing, and kayaking. You can even stay in a grain bin.

Two steel bins are available, aptly named “Corn” and “Beans.” Each one accommodates up to 12 persons and comes with TV, heat, air conditioning, a kitchen, queen-size beds, and more. The address is 4902 Warbler, Sutherland. (Two miles SW of Sutherland on Highway 10 and ½ mile south on Warbler Avenue) 

A home using a steel bin has become popular in recent years. Log onto the internet and you can find hundreds of unique homes of various sizes and designs utilizing grain bins. In the photo below, taken in 2018, a wedding was scheduled to begin within the hour.

A treasure restored. Lonely and abandoned, this Gordon-Van Tine kit barn sat waiting to be rescued when photographed in 2013. Built by Paul Jens in 1921 at a cost of $2,600 as a horse barn, it was later used for hogs in the 1960s-1970s.

Owen Jens of rural Glenwood, grandson of Paul, took on the restoration project in 2014. The two photos below illustrate the roofing progress using interlocking powder-coated steel shingles. Note the painter in the photo on the right restoring the ventilator.

Just months before restoration was completed in 2017, Owen died of cancer after a short illness. Travis Sell, the current owner, uses it for storage of hay, but his future plans include horses.

It’s a great save! Below are two photos taken in November 2020.

It’s in Pottawattamie County between Silver City and Treynor. Everyone in the area recognizes it but may not know that it is missing any occupants today. (See page 278 of Iowa Barns Yesterday and Today for more of the story.)

Here’s an amazing view of the inside. The “ceiling” consists of bricks while the foundation, as well as the upper section leading to the cupola, consists of hollow clay times. The roof is made up of smaller clay tiles. The result is a double layer of tiles and bricks. Wow! That’s a heavy load.

It’s an engineering marvel, and almost 103 years later is still standing with just a few missing tiles and window glass. A nearby structure, seen below, is the dome of the cistern once used as a water supply.