Round barn

The overlap meant that round barns of both types, polygonal and circular, were built during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

George Washington designed and built a sixteen-sided threshing barn at his Dogue Run Farm in Fairfax County, Virginia in 1793.

[6] The interior layout of round barns was promoted as more efficient, since farmers could work in a continuous direction.

The spread of machinery, especially with the Rural Electrification program, eliminated the advantages of labor-saving designs that were more complicated to build, and the popularity of round barns faded.

Regardless, numerous round barns were constructed during the period of popularity the design enjoyed, and a large number still stand today.

Multi-sided round barns came in a variety of polygonal shapes, including layouts of six, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen sides.

Polygonal barns constructed before the advent of balloon framing tended to have interior spaces that were more rectangular than circular.

True circular round barns began to rise as improvements in construction techniques made their design more practical.

The standardization of the construction industry and the resulting decline in timber framing following the American Civil War is one possible reason.

[9] Designed in a distinctive circular shape, many of these barns were meant to take advantage of gravity to move hay from the loft to the cow stable below.

The round barn was promoted as a labor-saving design by agricultural colleges as a progressive way to house dairy cattle.

The early round barns had cattle stanchions on the first floor with the whole of the loft used for hay and feed storage.

The cattle stanchions in this variation of round barn were arranged around a circular manger on the lower level.

The final stage of interior design in round barns included a storage silo through the center of the structures.

Anecdotal evidence of the impact of the University of Illinois round barns can be collected from farmers today.