HomeMy Public PortalAboutBarnslyenis - l��ioly
McCall show to feature
historic barns of Idaho
"Barns of Idaho," a traveling ex-
hibit, will be presented on Friday,
Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at the McCall
Public Library, 218 Park St., in
McCall.
The illustrated program will be
presented by Arthur A. Hart, former
director of the Idaho State Historical
Society. Admission is free and re-
freshments will be served.
One of Idaho's most endearing
legacies is the rich variety of farm
structures that have been part of the
economic lives of this agricultural
state. Unfortunately, barns are be-
coming obsolete and are rapidly dis-
appearing from the community land-
scapes due to decay, neglect, obso-
lescence and urban growth.
By means of a traveling exhibit
and an audio-visual presentation, His-
toric Idaho has documented this fas-
cinating part of our heritage, to keep
alive the history, technology and tra-
dition of Idaho's agricultural past.
Historic Idaho is a non-profit cor-
poration dedicated to publications
on Idaho's history, people and cul-
ture.
Idaho barns have been designed
for climate, available building mate-
rials and tradition that mirror the
ethnic background of the builder.
The Finns of Long Valley built barns
with distinctive proportions, the barns
of southeastem Idaho reflect the Mor-
mon barns of Utah, and Canyon
County farmers reflect the styles of
Iowa and Missouri from which they
came.
Although examples of most barns
still survive, their numbers are dwin-
dling. No longer a horse -powered
world requiring big lofts for hay stor-
age, the tractor and the baler have
been largely responsible for making
barns obsolete. Corporate agriculture,
where several small farms are often
combined, has led to the leveling of
whole farmsteads — house, barn and
outbuildings.
Hart has photographed nearly a
thousand barns in Idaho, and these
photographs of Idaho history and tech-
nology have been incorporated into a
traveling exhibit.
Well-known throughout Idaho,
Hart has written or co-authored 10
books about the Gem State. His con-
tributions to architectural history and
historic preservation have earned him
the Phoenix Award and honorary
membership in the American Insti-
tute of Architects.
The event is sponsored by the
Friends of the McCall Library and the
Idaho Humanities Council. For infor-
mation, call 634-5522.
N-el»�-11WQAlbel /7f/ f
Photo courtesy McCall Public Library
This photograph of the Nickolai Wargelin barn is one example of old-time barns featured in Friday's show.
Show to feature historic barns
"Barns of Idaho," a traveling ex-
hibit, will be presented on Friday at 7
p.m. at the McCall Public Library,
218 Park St., in McCall.
The illustrated program will be
presented by Arthur A. Hart, former
director of the Idaho State Historical
Society. Admission is free and re-
freshments will be served.
One of Idaho's most endearing
legacies is the rich variety of farm
structures that have teen part of the
economic lives of this agricultural
state. Unfortunately, barns are be-
coming obsolete and are rapidly dis-
appearing from the community land-
scapes due to decay, neglect, obsoles-
cence and urban growth.
By means of a traveling exhibit
and an audio-visual presentation, His-
toric Idaho has documented this fas-
cinating part of our heritage, to keep
alive the history, technology and tra-
dition of Idaho's agricultural past.
Historic Idaho is a non-profit cor-
poration dedicated to publications on
Idaho's history, people and culture.
Idaho barns have been designed
for climate, available building mate-
rials and tradition that mirror the eth-
nic background of the builder. The
Finns of Long Valley built barns with
distinctive proportions, the barns of
southeastern Idaho reflect the Mor-
mon barns of Utah, and Canyon
County farmers reflect the styles of
Iowa and Missouri from which they
came.
Although examples of most barns
still survive, their numbers are dwin-
dling. No longer a horse -powered
world requiring big lofts for hay stor-
age, the tractor and the baler have
been largely responsible for making
barns obsolete. Corporate agriculture,
where several small farms are often
combined, has led to the leveling of
whole farmsteads — house, barn and
outbuildings.
Hart has photographed nearly a
thousand barns in Idaho, and these
photographs of Idaho history and tech-
nology have been incorporated into a
traveling exhibit.
Well-known throughout Idaho,
Hart has written or co-authored 10
books about the Gem State. His con-
tributions to architectural history and
historic preservation have earned him
the Phoenix Award and honorary
membership in the American Insti-
tute of Architects.
The event is sponsored by the
Friends of the McCall Library and the
Idaho Humanities Council.
Neglected buildings show pioneers' backgrounds
Monumental barns:
BUHL (AP) — Built larger than
needed, now largely neglected, they
stand as monuments to the industry of
those who built the Magic Valley.
Huge, old barns dot the landscape of
Twin Falls County and are a piece of
classic Americana — even though their
architectural designs often were Dutch,
British or German.
Lured by promises of ample water
and daily sunshine, immigrants from the
East and Midwest brought with them
skills and judgments acquired in differ-
ent circumstances. They set to work
building barns almost immediately.
"Nowadays, people build a fine home
first. Then, you built the barn, because
that made the living," says Ted Sand-
meyer, whose father moved to Buhl and
bought a dairy six years after it was
built.
Though convenient for dairymen, the
large barns proved a frill for some oth-
ers who found they could store hay
safely and easily outdoors in the arid
Idaho climate.
The structures, if they are used at all,
now house winter cattle or farm machin-
ery.
A Buhl native, Madeline Kelley Buck-
endorf is compiling information about a
cluster of barns in the area to nominate
�no3TAQ TESIIVIIAP Pennsylvania cheesemaker of German
WEDNESDAY, ancestry. He earlier built one of the first
MAY 12, 1982 ' _' cheese factories in the West, at Tilla-
q ? al mma°ok�, ,
HI--
O,@� t ,.. s sue,, Ett`.,Wf dozen barns in the area
r`. carry the distinctive touches of master
�'. builder Henry Schick, who accompanied
Kunze to Idaho.
His barns were sturdy, but it was his
Q _ added-`t-euches that gave the buildings
their distinction.
R.gtvn. arn, Schick added flared
rafif` t' dotaion-dome caps on the silo
and ventilators.
One in tjk area features a cupola with
a gambr" p, which mirrors the shape
p
PAYETTE LAi'•.=S
PR G ESSIVE CLUB
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for the National Register of Historic
Places.
The designation would recognize the
historical importance of the barns and
allow owners certain tax advantages if
they restore the structures or remodel
them to serve modern functions.
One of the more prominent structures
is the Clover Leaf dairy and cheese fac-
tory, dedicated in 1912 amid a good deal
of community fanfare. It was purchased
six years later by Sandmeyer's father.
Measuring roughly 60-by-120 feet, the
barn is large enough to house some high
school auditoriums.
It was designed by Gustave Kunze, a
of the barn's roof.
Other barns sported a variety of
styles.
Many were built from lava rock,
which was plentiful during development
of Twin Falls and Northside tracts in
1905 and 1907.
One of the largest rock barns, a three-
story structure along U.S. 90, was com-
missioned as a 60-cow dairy and was
said to have needed 1,500 loads of rock to
finish.
Whether they were intended for prac-
tical use or as monuments to their de-
signers' imagination, the barns' tradition
is worth preserving, Buckendorf says.
By ARTHUR A. HART
Director
Idaho Historical Museum
Architecture with a capital
"A" has long been consid-
ered a subject worthy of
scholarly attention.
In colleges across the
country and around the
world, students consider the
famous styles and buildings
of other times, and learn to
recognize the works of
"greats" like Bramante,
Michelangelo, Sir Christ-
opher Wren and Charles Bul-
finch.
The fact that most of the
world's buildings have been
constructed without the aid
of professional designers
with formal training is often
overlooked.
Idaho architecture is no
exception. Most of the build-
ings we see, especially in
rural settings, were done
without an architectect.
They are often classic il-
lustrations of the power of
folk tradition — styles and
methods for building passed
down from generation to
generation outside the for-
mal educational or "book -
Idaho Yesterdays
Many Buildings Rise
On 'Folk Tradition'
ish" traditions of trans-
mitting knowledge.
Although all architecture
is influenced by tradition,
those of folk architecture
are most often passed along
by word of mouth and by
demonstration. Its other es-
sential and inescapable in-
gredients are its adaptations
to available building mate-
rials and local climate.
Variations in style and
method from place to place
in Idaho are most often tra-
ceable to these variables in
tradition, materials, and cli-
mate.
For the past two months,
thirty students at the College
of Idaho, in a course called
"Architecture in Idaho,"
have been doing field work
in the southwestern part of
the state, collecting informa-
tion on such traditional
structures as barns, fences,
corrals, grain cribs, and hay
derricks.
They have been trying to
discover patterns in con-
struction methods, mate-
rials, and the sources of tra-
ditions.
As might be expected,
they have found that emi-
grants to Idaho in the latter
part of the 19th century, for
example, often built barns
like the ones they were used
to in the East or Midwest.
From the hundreds of
structures photographed,
measured, and written up,
patterns are emerging.
Analysis of barn features,
like roof style, hay -door
hoods, cupolas, kind of sid-
ing, and placement of win-
dows, for example, show
when they were most popu-
lar, where the people came
from who favored one style
over another, and which are
most numerous.
What has long been a mat-
ter of speculation by a few
geographers who have dopgo,
cursory studies, can now 6td
done statistically with much
more evidence than was
ever available before.
Tabulation of results aii
careful analysis will lead to
publication of the study,
ing us for the first tim
clear picture of Idaho's rural
architecture without archi-
tects. �1
More than mere statistic
moreover, that picture
Weldon R. Fry's barn near Eagle was built in 1900
reveal a rich, varied, and ef-
fective architecture that is
inextricably linked with the
human beings who made
Idaho their home in early
days.
An example of one such
building studied suggests the
colorful Idaho history con-
nected with many of them.
The Weldon R. Fry barn
near Eagle was designed
and built by Mr. Fry's
grandfather, George Wash-
ington Fry, in 1900.
He hauled the lumber by
wagon from Dry Buck, more
than forty miles away, to
build a handsome "candy
stripe" board and batten
barn for horses.
The Fry place was a stage
stop between Boise and Em-
mett in those days, where
horses were changed for the
rest of the trip.
Since G. W. Fry came from
Iowa, homesteading this
place in 1885, it will be inter-
esting to try to discover how
much he was influenced by
Iowa barns when he built
this one.
/ys
Many barns built from same plans
The lover of old barns soon
notices that many of them, aside
from changes caused by weath-
ering and decay, are exactly
alike in design.
If all in one neighborhood,
there is the possibility that a
group of barns is the work of
one master carpenter who built
in a distinctive fashion from his
own favorite specifications and
plans. It is also possible that the
barns of a neighborhood are
alike because of a shared tradi-
tion. Barns built by the Finnish
settlers of Long Valley are an
example of that kind.
In the early years of the 20th
century, however, the similarity
of hundreds of barns is due to
their having been built from the
same set of plans. These were
often available from agricultur-
al colleges and their extension
services, the mission of which
was to help farmers build effi-
cient and economical barns and
outbuildings for their particular
kind of operation. There are
plans for dairy barns, horse
barns, and all-purpose family
barns, as well as hog houses,
chicken houses, and grain stor-
age bins.
The Radford Architectural Co.
of Chicago, a private supplier of
barn plans, flourished shortly af-
ter the turn of the century. In
the preface of his "Practical
Barn Plans and All Kinds of
Farm Buildings," published in
1908, Charles A. Radford writes
"It is just as easy to secure good
plans as to build after the ideas
prevailing in the neighborhood,
probably advanced by some car -
Arthur Hart
penter who has had little or no
experience outside of his own
town." Having knocked the
chief competitors among coun-
try barn builders, Radford pro-
ceeds to the consideration of
what is essential in a good barn.
He lists drainage, foundation,
ventilation, and economy as of
greatest importance, but also
says that his firm "does not
countenance the building of un-
sightly houses or outbuildings."
Sample views in the Radford
book typically include two ele-
vations and floor plans. Com-
plete blueprints could be or-
dered for from $5 to $35, for
structures given such labels as
"cheap horse barn" or "preten-
tious stock barn."
What strikes the reader of
Radford's catalog is that barns
were designed to be remarkably
efficient, and that we have seen
some of these very buildings on
farms across Idaho.
Arthur Hart is director emeritus
of the Idaho Historical Society.
His column appears Mondays.
Write to him in care of The States-
man, P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID
83707.
e� f, / 9 7 S
foe.
Qf 3 't-?1 f s
1. Stuart Aiken's barn became a (land-
mark on the Salmon River. Built before
1920. Not more than 20 feet off Highway
95 south, of Riggins.
kol DS
Idahoans a half century ago didn't have the
leisure time to engage in the usual forms of
artistic expression; they were too busy
making a living. Instead, they expressed
themselves through their work and their
architecture. Shown on these pages is a
variety of barns found in central Idaho. All
of them, with one exception, were built
before 1920. Though different in design,
they were all built to accomodate horses on
the ground level and hay in the lofts. The
builders, in an era pre -dating pre-fab
buildings, obviously built their barns to
satisfy their own needs, tastes and Finan-
cial conditions. What resulted is an eye -
pleasing landscape that tantalizes the
imagination of some to yearn for an earlier
time.
2. Dale Coreill's Dutch -style barn in
Indian Valley. Built by his grandfather in
1916. The self-supporting roof allows
maximum hay storage. Dimensions: 30'
wide by 40' long; 28' to eaves. The car-
penter, a 64-year-old man named Tucker,
danced jigs on the rafters while building
the barn.
y
3: The A.O. Huntley bam on the
Speropulos Ranch near Cuprum. This
barn, oyez' 100 feet long, was originally
built VC be a way station. Built between
1905 and 1910. •
/97,9'
5: Merrel Childers barn north of Council.
rA common style in Adams County. Paul
Phillips of Council remembers the barn
being there in 1919.
�O_qF �Z f 3 Rz e
4. A hip -roof barn on John Klement's
place north of Grangeville. Sits on a rock
:and mortar foundation. The roof style, or
hip, makes roof self-supporting. Built
before 1920.
),vf9it Pe-'ry
6. A log bam north of Donnelly built by
Bill Ax in the 1940's. Logs were hauled
from Paddy Flat. Barn was designed to be
open so cattle could move in and out freely.
Ax was never able to complete the
structure.
7. Rex Towell's barn and silos in Middle
Valley west of Midvale. The silos were
built before 1920 and are still in use. They
are made of 2x4s laid flat. The silos are
shaped like octogons.
8. Barn and silo on the Mike Fox ranch
ear Cambridge. Silo was built around
920. The barn followed piecemeal later.
ilo resembles castle tawer.
•.e
4 3 o f 3 1-4 p_c
pressive landmark on the rug-
ged road to Hells Canyon
until it was destroyed by fire
in the early 1930's.
The Huntley mansion was
located on property known to-
day as the Speropulos Ranch.
The mansion is gone but a-
nother landmark remains. A
huge barn still stands. Like the
house it was built sometime
between 1905 and 1910. The
story goes that "Brother Jim",
a negro, who migrated to the
Seven Devils after the Civil
War, built the impressive struc-
ture, or perhaps had a hand at
engineering it. The only expla-
nation for its impressive size,
over 100 feet long and 40 feet
high, is that Huntley ran a way
station and needed a building
large enough to accomodate
many horses. Huntley later
went broke; his dreams gener-
ally outdistanced his finances.
From an engineering standpoint the barn is an
impressive structure.
The big barn is a reminder of Huntley's ambitions in the Seven Devils.