Round Barns and Covered Bridges

August 8, 2011 4:25 AM

Round Barns and Covered Bridges.

An up-to-date site with locations and pictures. I see road trips in my future.

posted by marxchivist (20 comments total)

The Bridges of Madison County
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:37 AM on August 8, 2011

My google fu even has an awesome timestamp *wipes tear*
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:39 AM on August 8, 2011

Truth in packaging: Under the "Round Barns" label on the site, many of the listings are houses or other non-barns, and many of the structures are octagonal or other-polygonal rather than truly round.
Still, a very useful compendium.
posted by beagle at 5:00 AM on August 8, 2011

round barn? no corners? where do you put the shit you'll never use, but is to good to throw away?
posted by kitchenrat at 5:52 AM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I thought this was a duplicate, but it was only mentioned in the comments of the Octagon House post.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:11 AM on August 8, 2011

Thanks for this. It makes me feel good whenever Maine is listed on a site that isn't publishing relative income or education levels. Covered bridges. Yeah, we're pretty good at that.
posted by jwhite1979 at 6:18 AM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I you start at the top of the Iowa barns, you see a bunch that are not so well maintained, and then you come to this.

I think I can knock a few off his to-do list.
posted by -jf- at 6:39 AM on August 8, 2011

I stumbled across this myself, then when I searched Metafilter I saw that it had been mentioned in the Octagon House post. I said Fuck It and posted it anyways. I also like the site for its mid-1990's aesthetic while at the same time it is incredibly easy and logical to navigate.
posted by marxchivist at 6:45 AM on August 8, 2011

This is not a round barn. It is the Langworthy House.
posted by TrialByMedia at 7:57 AM on August 8, 2011

I spent some time a couple years ago traveling around northern Illinois to see many, many buildings. Among them, round barns. I got quite excited when round barns were on my list. They are sometimes difficult to find, which adds a bit of mystery to the quest and their often rural settings are placid and serene. Of course, the reasons they were built in the first place didn't really amount to much. A push for effciency in agriculture, spearheaded, especially, by the Agriculture Experiment Stations at the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin, is really what spurred round barns into existence. Their heyday was short-lived and in the end, the effciency increase was largely imagined. In Stephenson County, Illinois there are quite a few well-preserved round barns that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are also some I see here that have fallen down over the last couple years.

This is a website I have stumbled across before in my round barn readings, it's quite thorough, more so than any of the preservation programs that have surveyed round barns or covered bridges. Great post.
posted by IvoShandor at 8:07 AM on August 8, 2011

New Brunswick represent! I've had the pleasure of biking over the longest covered bridge in the world. It's right some long.
posted by beau jackson at 8:14 AM on August 8, 2011

The diagram and description here give you a good idea of how round barns improved farm efficiency. Somewhat better version of the diagram is here.
posted by beagle at 9:20 AM on August 8, 2011

Covered bridges make me nostalgic for growing up in PA. I didn't think there could be many in Oregon, where I now live. How wrong I was, how wrong. This is the coolest and I may have to take up golf just so I can check it out because apparently it's part of a golf course.

But this made me laugh. I used to work in this industrial park.
posted by medeine at 9:22 AM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I only peeked at the ones near me, and already found a few mistakes. For one, this round "barn" was never a barn. From what I have been told by the town historian it was designed as as a home to look like a barn. Not unusual. We built our garage with an apartment in it to look like a barn.

There is a round barn in Tunbridge, which was recently purchased by a famous (but not very good) golfer who I think is currently on the Senior tour. They have done their best to piss everyone in town off, with the wife threatening to burn the barn down if their taxes go up. This round barn is not on their list.

This covered bridge is the closest to my house (about 2 miles), and recently underwent some renovations, which are evident in the top photo. There a few missing from their list in Orange County, Vermont, I think.

Great post though. This will come in handy. Thanks.
posted by terrapin at 11:29 AM on August 8, 2011

Although, this person may have overdid it a bit. I mean, what?
posted by IvoShandor at 1:26 PM on August 8, 2011

Maybe "round buildings" would be a better way for the site's author to present things. Or round buildings, barns, covered bridges and some architectural vomit from which you will never recover.
posted by IvoShandor at 1:29 PM on August 8, 2011

It's interesting that the bridges from Madison County, IA, are some of the least impressive on the whole. I grew up here thinking they were something spectacular because of that book that Oprah liked.
posted by erstwhile at 3:48 PM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh man, remember when digital cameras used to create JPEGs that were nigh-unusable in quality?
posted by dunkadunc at 4:29 PM on August 8, 2011

If you like covered bridges, you should visit Ashtabula Ohio.
posted by graxe at 7:07 AM on August 9, 2011

What about Round Bridges?
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 9:58 AM on August 12, 2011