The Gerald Harbach Round Barn is a

round barn A round barn is a historic barn design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880 to 1920 represent ...

near Eleroy, an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Stephenson County Stephenson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States census, it had a population of 44,630. Its county seat is Freeport. Stephenson County is included in the Freeport, IL Micropolitan Statis ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The builder and designer of the building are unknown but it is very similar to round barns designed by the team of Jeremiah Shaffer and the Hass Brothers. It was probably built around the same time as the James Bruce Round Barn, erected in 1914, in

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Freeport, name of several space stations in the video game ''Freelancer'' (2003) * Freeport, a fictional town in the video game ''SiN'' (1998) * ''Freeport: The Cit ...

. The Harbach Round Barn was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1984.

Architecture

The 55 foot (16.8 m)

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest Chord (geometry), chord of the circle. Both definitions a ...

Gerald Harbach Round Barn stands upon a poured

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

foundation near the unincorporated community of Eleroy in

Stephenson County, Illinois Stephenson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States census, it had a population of 44,630. Its county seat is Freeport. Stephenson County is included in the Freeport, IL Micropolitan Sta ...

. The wood sided exterior has been covered in

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

since the building's construction. The barn's main, ground level entrance, is in the west quadrant and over the entrance is the

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

door which is a rectangular opening in the ceiling. Each rafter of the single

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

is braced with a nailed beam four feet (1.2 m) above and four feet (1.2 m) below, on the opposite side, the roof hip. In addition, there are beams nailed diagonally between the studs in the loft to brace the building against strong winds. The roof exterior is capped with a short

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. Out of the extant barns in Stephenson County that have been listed on the

the Harbach Round Barn is the most altered from its original state. The two, interior loft plates have been replaced with

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

beams, hoisted by steel

jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

s. The animal entrance, in the southeast quadrant of the barn, has also been sealed since the building is primarily used for storage.Sculle, Keith A.
Gerald Harbach Round Barn
" National Register of Historic Places Individual Property Form: Multiple Property Submission, October 1983, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency''. Retrieved 5 October 2007. The precise builder and designer of the Harbach Round Barn are unknown. The characteristics of the roof joints and studs suggest that the barn was built around the same time as the

Charles Fehr Round Barn The Charles Fehr Round Barn is a round barn in the U.S. state of Illinois near the Stephenson County village of Orangeville. The barn was built in 1912 by the team of Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas Brothers about one half mile from the Illinois& ...

, near Orangeville, and the James Bruce Round Barn near

, though, much like the designer, the exact date of construction is unknown. The Bruce Round Barn, a Shaffer and Haas structure was built in 1914.Sculle, Keith A.
James Bruce Round Barn
" National Register of Historic Places Individual Property Form: Multiple Property Submission, October 1983, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency''. Retrieved 5 October 2007. These characteristics also suggest that the barn was designed by the Haas Brothers– Jeremiah Shaffer team.

Significance

The Gerald Harbach Round Barn is one of 31

s that were constructed in a four county area, the Stephenson County area, that includes Winnebago County, Stephenson County and

Rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

Counties in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Twenty one of those barns, including the Harbach Round Barn are within Stephenson County. The Harbach Round Barn is an example of a noteworthy design variation within

design, specifically because of its specially braced roof. It is not entirely unique; its cupola and roof make it very similar to the Fehr Round Barn. The main difference in the Fehr and Harbach Round Barns is the Harbach's lack of a central

storage silo A silo () is a structure for storing Bulk material handling, bulk materials. Silos are commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, woodchips, food products and sawdust. Three types of silos are in widespread use toda ...

. The building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1984 as part of a

Multiple Property Submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

.Sculle, Keith A. "," (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

) National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 9 January 1984, National Register Information System, ''National Park Service''. Retrieved 5 October 2007.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbach, Gerald, Round Barn Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures completed in 1914 National Register of Historic Places in Stephenson County, Illinois Round barns in Illinois

Architecture

Significance

See also

Notes