Learn about the evolution of the American barn at Garfield Farm Museum

Posted October 05, 2016 11:00 pm

Garfield Farm Museum

On Saturday, Oct. 15, David Bauer, museum special projects director, will offer two lectures on the barns which give the Midwest its iconic landscape.

"Barns 101" will be offered at 10 a.m., followed by "Barns 201" at 1 p.m. at Garfield Farm Museum, 2N930 Garfield Road in Campton Hills.

Just as the first log houses that occupied early Illinois are a rare sight today, wooden barns that defined farming in the 19th and 20th century will not survive the 21st century.

"Barns 101" will focus on barn terminology, their European antecedents, the evolution of the American barn, roof types, and modern barns which will be followed by a tour of the museum's barns until noon.

It helps to have attended the morning sessions to fully enjoy "Barns 201" at 1 p.m. as methods for dating a barn, mortise and tenon techniques, truss designs, barn alterations, timber framing vs. plank and balloon framing, and silos will be discussed followed by a tour of the barns.

This is the last generation that will have known barns as part of the rural landscape. With the changes in agriculture, most historic barns no longer meet the size needs of large machinery or large livestock herds on present day farms. As a result, forces of nature, consolidation of small farms into large farms, economics, and the passage of time is totally eliminating what was once such a dominate feature of the American countryside. However, museums, inveterate barn lovers, and adapting barns for homes and businesses offer a chance that more might survive their initial construction purpose.

The lectures are $6 per lecture. Refreshments will be provided. Reservations can be made by contacting the museum at (630) 584-8485 or info@garfieldfarm.org.

Garfield Farm Museum is a 375-acre historically intact former 1840s Illinois prairie farmstead and teamster inn that volunteers and donors are preserving as an 1840s living history museum.

The museum is located on Garfield Road, off Route 38, 5 miles west of Geneva.

Visit www.garfieldfarm.org or www.facebook.com/GarfieldFarmMuseum/.

In 2012, the roof of Garfield Farm Museum's largest barn was restored. More than 10,000 sawed cedar shingles were used and every roof board on the 1906 dairy barn was repositioned and re-nailed. The work revealed the movement to use less wood in barns, as this made-to-order barn used only 2-by-4-foot roof rafters instead of 2- by 6-inch boards. Courtesy of Garfield Farm Museum

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