The stave silo has a diameter of 12 feet (3.7 m) and is accessed on the barn's northeast side via a banked entrance.

Above the south and northeast entrances are overshoots which extend from the wall diagonally and were meant to compensate for the building's lack of overall storm protection.

[3]The single hip roof design represents the evolution of round barn construction in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

[3] Two of the three round barns designed at the University of Illinois experiment station feature the central silo.

The coming of machinery, especially with the Rural Electrification program, obviated labor-saving designs that were more complicated to build, and round barns faded into history.

[2] The James Bruce Round Barn was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1984.