The Harnsberger Octagonal Barn, also known the Mt. Meridian Octagonal Barn, is located near

Grottoes, Virginia Grottoes is a town in Rockingham and Augusta counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 2,899 at the 2020 census. The town lies right on the border with Augusta County, and several commercial, residential, and recreational lo ...

. Built about 1867, the barn is possibly the only example of such a barn in Virginia, as the building style was more popular in the expanding midwestern United States in the immediate post-

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

era than in economically depressed Virginia. The octagonal style was popularized in 1853 by ''A Home For All, or the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building'' by

Orson Squire Fowler Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was an American phrenologist and lecturer. He also popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century. Early life The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he ...

. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> The barn was built for Robert Samuel Harnsberger in 1867, following the example of his brother Stephen, who had built an octagonal house nearby in 1856. The barn represents an adaptation of the octagonal concept to the site, incorporating elements of traditional

bank barn A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn which is accessible from the ground, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill or bank, the upper and the lower floors could both be accessed from the ground, one area at the top of ...

s. The barn's builders encountered difficulty in assembling and fitting the barn, requiring the assistance of other carpenters. The wood frame barn retains the traditional bank barn functions of a central wagon floor with hay lofts to either side, rather than a functional distinction between each of the sides as suggested by Fowler. As with a bank barn, accommodations for cattle are on the lower level, with the stalls arranged in a line rather than radially. The barn was placed on the

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 ...

on July 8, 1982.

References

External links

Harnsberger Octagonal Barn, Virginia Route 256, West of Intersection with Virginia Route 865, Grottoes vicinity, Augusta, VA
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

(HABS) {{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Augusta County, Virginia Buildings and structures completed in 1867 Buildings and structures in Augusta County, Virginia Octagon barns in the United States Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia 1867 establishments in Virginia