The Robert Weber 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 ...

located east of

Durand, Illinois Durand is a village in Winnebago County, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area The population was 1,443 at the 2010 census, up from 1,081 in 2000. History Its township's beginnings initiat ...

, United States along

Illinois Route 75 Illinois Route 75 (IL 75) is an east–west state highway in north-central Illinois. It runs from downtown Freeport at Illinois Route 26 to WIS 67 at the Wisconsin state line southeast of Beloit, Wisconsin. This is a distance of . Route ...

in Harrison Township. The Weber barn was constructed in 1917 and features a roof designed and built by the Haas Brothers, who worked on other area round barns. The barn is in diameter and features a diameter central

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 design of the Weber Round Barn stands out from other area round barns in its vitrified tile walls, a development used in later period American round barns. The Robert Weber 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.

History

The Robert Weber Round Barn was built in 1917 east of

in Harrison Township along

. When the building was nominated for inclusion on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1984 it was owned by Robert Weber.

Design

The barn building has a

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 ...

of and contains a central

with a diameter of . Both the barn and silo walls are constructed of brown, hollow

vitrified Vitrification (, via French ') is the full or partial transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say, a non- crystalline or amorphous solid. Glasses differ from liquids structurally and glasses possess a higher degree of connectivity ...

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

; each tile measures by 4¾

inches The inch (symbol: in or ) is a unit of length in the British Imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth"), the word ''inch'' is also sometim ...

. The Weber Round Barn was designed as a

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 ...

, its loft is entered on the north side via an earthen ramp that leads to a metal framed door. Livestock entry is made on the west side of the barn through another metal framed door, in addition, all windows are metal framed. 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 supported by braces on either side of every

rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as Beam (structure), steel beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof Roof shingle, shingles, ...

in a style promoted by the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Agricultural Experiment Station An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with ...

. The roof is covered in wooden shingles and capped by a small metal ventilator.Sculle, Keith A.
Robert Weber Round Barn
" Individual Property Form, 9 January 1984, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency''. Retrieved 16 July 2007. The roof design and construction, by the Haas Brothers, connects it closely with round barns found 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 ...

that feature Haas Brothers construction. The Weber Barn was the last in the Stephenson County area that the Haas Brothers worked on. The Weber Round Barn does differ from the barns in neighboring Stephenson County in its vitrified tile wall. This type of tile wall demonstrates an important period in the evolution of round barn design.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'', pp. 7-15. Retrieved 16 July 2007. Vitrified tile was preferred by builders during the final period of American round barn construction. The Weber Round Barn stands out from other round barns, such as those in Stephenson County, as well. Compared to those barns, the Dennis Otte Round Barn, the Gerald Harbach Round Barn, James Bruce Round Barn, Chris Jensen Round Barn and the Charles Fehr Round Barn, the Weber Round Barn has an air of sophistication. This is due to its

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

walls, specially braced hip roof and metal framed windows and doors.

Significance

The Robert Weber 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 are within Stephenson County, just west of the Weber Barn. The Weber Barn is also significant for its tile walls which demonstrate a later period round barn preference. The Weber Round Barn was nominated for the U.S.

in 1984 as part of the inaugural nomination through the Round Barns in Illinois Thematic Resources

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 ...

. This means it met the criteria laid out beforehand for Illinois round barns. The building was listed on the National Register on February 2, 1984.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Robert, Round Barn Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures completed in 1917 National Register of Historic Places in Winnebago County, Illinois Round barns in Illinois

History

Design

Significance

See also

Notes