Historic 8-sided barn taken down piece by piece, rebuilt at Richardson Adventure Farm to be event venue

A rare, eight-sided barn that stood on the south end of Spring Grove for well over a century is getting raised again.

The circa-1876 barn stood on the Hatch-Kattner farm for nearly 150 years, but was “on its last legs” when the farmland went up for sale three years ago, said George Richardson, of Richardson Adventure Farm.

Taken apart piece by piece and stored until it could be rebuilt, it’s now being put back together with hopes for it to survive another 150 years.

When finished, the barn is set for use as event space at the agritourism farm at 909 English Prairie Road, Spring Grove.

Once done, it will be about 70% original barn, 30% new.

“Of the main structure, beams and posts” were reused and built back with the original wood pegs, Richardson said.

“There is a magnificent history to this barn,” he said adding, according to his research, there are about 200 multisided or round barns remaining in the Midwest.

Its history started on the Hatch farm. In the 1870s, farmer Lewis Hatch built what are believed the first silo towers in the U.S. as a way to keep silage fresher, longer.

“Every dairy farm in the U.S.” uses silo towers now, Richardson said. The barn was built three years later.

The farmland was later purchased by the Kattner family, and the buildings sat unused. The silos are gone now, and farm site was falling into disrepair, including the iconic barn.

The land was bought by Jack Pease of Super Aggregates, who says he wanted to see the barn saved.

“The farm that I bought had buildings that were just junk — other than the octagon barn. It is so unique. I wanted to find somebody who wanted it,” Pease said.

There were hopes from local groups to preserve the Hatch farm site, Richardson said, including the idea of donating the barn to the McHenry County Conservation District.

“Historic buildings and barns … it costs a lot to maintain those,” Richardson said.

Pease offered the barn to the Richardsons, even paying for the crane time needed for disassembling the barn and to store it until they could have it reassembled.

“He was interested in preserving the history,” Richardson said.

Richardson, Pease said, “got all excited about a feature building” for the farm. “Now they are able to put it back up, forever.”

The structure was taken apart piece by piece, and each piece was numbered before it was moved into storage.

Richardson found a barn-building crew to put it back together again. That work started earlier this year, and is expected to be finished in September.

Many original timbers — including most of the cathedral-esque ceiling — remain. But it will not qualify for a historic designation because of changes that had to be made for commercial safety codes. The outer wood cladding was rotting and had to be replaced, but wood that can be reused is, Richardson said.

An addition to the barn gives it a catering kitchen for events, and to serve food during the spring Tulip Festival and autumn Corn Maze at Richardson Adventure Farm.

“It will be a really nice indoor space … to rent out for events in the summertime,” he said. He doesn’t have a firm number yet, but expects the barn will be useable for up to 120 guests at wedding, reunions or other events.

There are plans to put up some interpretive, educational signage to explain the Hatch farm and barn’s history.

“I want to tie this into the historical significance with the Hatch family and the vertical silos, to tell people the story. That adds a whole level of interest to me,” Richardson said.

There are photos at the county building that shows historic McHenry County farms, and the original farmsteads, Pease noted.

“This is more unique than most of them,” he said. “It deserves to be saved forever and it has a good home there now.”