Round Barns / Dairy Farm Historic District

Deep in the heart of the University's South Farms district tower the three Round Barns. Built between 1907 and 1913, and costing $21,500, [1] the three barns anchored the 20-acre dairy demonstration farm [2] and "offer[ed] the dairy farmer 'economy of consideration, low maintenance, and labor efficiency'". [3] The barns, originally constructed as demonstration and research structures, were the creation of Wilbur J. Fraser, who led the Department of Dairy Husbandry from 1902 to 1913, [4] and H. C. Crouch. [5] Although originally constructed as an experiment, the barns later led the way for round barns to take over Illinois. [6] Fewer than 60 of them remain throughout the United States [7]

First built by the Shakers in 1824, round barns required less lumber and bracing the frame. Construction was also simplified, as no elaborate scaffolding was required for the circular arched roof. [8] The barns also proved more resilient against to prairie storms. [9]

The three University of Illinois barns were engineered by James M. White, Kell, and Bernard, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. [10] They followed the 1893 construction of the Pure Bred Cattle Dairy Barn, a contemporary construction costing $7,500. [11] The first of the three was known simply as the Twenty Acre Dairy Barn, built in 1907 for $3,200, and located near the Dairy Farm House built the same year for $3,000. It was followed by the Dairy Horse Barn was built in 1912 for $2,000, the Dairy House and Shop in 1913 for $2,300, and the Dairy Experiment Barn in 1913 for $11,000. [12]

Collectively, the Dairy Horse Barn, the Dairy House and Shop, and the Dairy Experiment Barn were known as the Experimental Dairy Barns. The Horse Barn was a 40 by 70 foot wood structure with an attached Grout silo, while the two-story House and Shop, measuring 26 by 32 feet, housed the "office, shop, coal room, dairy room, and four sleeping rooms for employees". The Experiment Barn was the centerpiece of the complex, spanning 70 feet in diameter with a reinforced concrete silo at its heart. [13]