By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
My plan for the first day of our 2015 spring photography trip was to be in Galena, Illinois, at dawn. We’ve told you about eating out of the cooler but never about what it takes to get that all ready. When we have pasta, potato, or fruit salads, those are not store-bought. Everything is made or prepped by one of us, including our snacks.
So, the night before we were to leave, Joann called and said maybe we should leave home around dawn rather than try to be somewhere more than an hour and a half away at first light. That worked for me because we were both exhausted from packing and preparation. I crossed Galena off my plans, so the first thing we captured after entering Illinois was this wonderful old lumber yard building.
So often, especially on these long trips, we leave very early and drive for long distances in the dark. On this day, we had an opportunity to see things and photograph things we normally do not.
Sometimes, a day of photography has a theme. We’ll get in an area and almost every stop is a church and cemetery, or maybe it’s a day of almost all schools. On the morning of this trip, we ended up being foiled by a train. I had no idea it was going to be a theme for the trip!
We passed this BNSF train coming down the tracks as we approached Savanna, Illinois. Our plans were to capture the old Savanna-Sabula Bridge. When we saw the bridge from a good location, Joann pulled onto the shoulder and parked. She got her equipment out and snapped a photo of the train coming down the tracks. It seemed to be traveling slower than normal and we figured that was because it was nearing town. But it continued slowing down until it was idling on the tracks, blocking our perfect view of the bridge before Joann could get any shots. Curses, foiled!
We didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to photograph this historic bridge, so we waited a very long time until the train finally moved on.
The rest of the first day was filled with a variety of subjects, including the historic Ryan Round Barn in Henry County, Illinois. Today, it sits in the Johnson-Sauk Trail State Park. It was built in 1910 for Dr. Laurence Ryan, a world-renowned brain surgeon in Chicago, for his Black Angus show cattle. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.
We started Day Two in Burlington, Iowa, and we managed to get through the whole morning without running into any trains. We heard them around town, but the closest we came was this BNSF Lift Bridge over the Mississippi River. When river traffic needs to pass, trains are paused on the tracks while one section (or span) of the bridge is raised using towers and counterweights (almost like an elevator) to make room for the river traffic to pass under it.
We photographed many locations downtown, including the beautifully restored
Capitol Theater. This 1937 Art Deco theater opened on July 1, 1937 during the Great Depression, offering hope to the people of Burlington. Movie admission was 36 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. After nearly 40 years, the theater closed in 1977. Fortunately, it survived demolition for the next 35 years, re-opening in 2012 as a movie and live performance theater after a major renovation project was completed. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
As we finished up in Burlington, I decided our best bet was to just cruise a short distance down the highway to Fort Madison. Our plans for the day were huge, and we had to keep moving. We came down the highway from the north, and almost everything I knew about was in downtown, which runs along the river.
And this is where the foiling really began. One of the first things Joann attempted to photograph was Old Fort Madison from across the railroad tracks so that she could capture all the buildings that make up the fort. Just as she was lining up her shot, a train came down the tracks and stopped, blocking our view of the fort. Curses, foiled again!
Luckily, the historic downtown, which is on the side of the tracks away from the river, had quite a few things for us to photograph, so we began searching for those subjects. We captured photos of an old bank, a historic jail, some vintage signs, a carriage house, a prayer chapel, and a couple of brick summer kitchens. (A summer kitchen, for those who don’t know, is a small building separate from the main house where cooking and canning could be done in the summer months to avoid heating up the main house.)
All the while, though, we kept circling around checking to see if we could get to those things on the side of the railroad tracks by the river. Here’s a photo of one of the brick summer kitchens.
Finally, the train tracks were empty and there was a clear view of Old Fort Madison. Historic Old Fort Madison was the first U.S. military outpost in the upper Mississippi region. From 1808 to 1813, the fort acted as a trading post between the US Army and Native Americans. It was the site of Chief Blackhawk's first battle against U.S. troops, making it the only real War of 1812 battlefield located in the state of Iowa and the first U.S. military cemetery in the upper Midwest. This replica of the original fort was built a few blocks away from the original site and serves as a museum.
And at long last, we were able to cross the tracks to get some pictures of the Fort Madison Toll Bridge over the Mississippi. Built in 1927, this toll double-decker through truss swing bridge is also known as the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge. It carries the Great River Road traffic over the Mississippi River, with road traffic occupying the upper deck and rail traffic on the lower deck. Unlike a lift bridge, a swing bridge has a section (or span) that rotates, usually 90 degrees, to allow river traffic to pass by.
This historic bridge is currently owned by BNSF Railway and Amtrak’s Southwest Chief also uses the bridge. River traffic has the right of way, so the 525-foot swing span opens about 2,000 times annually for 15-20 minutes at a time for river traffic. And I’ll bet you can guess what happened next. A train came barreling across the bridge, stopping on the tracks in front of the park, which blocked our exit. Curses, foiled by a train for a third time.
Little did I know at that time, about 100 trains pass through Fort Madison on any given day. And they idle on the tracks sometimes before crossing the toll bridge and sometimes after. It’s no wonder trains kept foiling us. As soon as we could get out of the park, we got in line to cross the bridge and continue on our way. Luckily, as we traveled away from the Mississippi River, we managed to avoid train issues for the rest of the trip.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label National Register of Historic Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Register of Historic Places. Show all posts
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Cincinnati Gas Street Lamps
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
In researching our 2016 trip to Ohio, we wanted to spend time at the historic Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati. The normal gate hours are 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., but we wanted to start photographing at dawn. I communicated with the cemetery office staff, trying to get someone from security to meet us at dawn, but when I hadn’t gotten confirmation before we left home, I decided we had to start the day somewhere else.
The downtown riverfront seemed like a good idea. We had made reservations at a small motel in Indiana, but when we arrived, we found that they didn’t even offer the kind of room we had reserved with them earlier that morning! We ended up crossing over into Kentucky and staying at another motel. In the morning, in the dark, we crossed back into Ohio and made our way to the riverfront.
Joann knows of my weakness for flying pigs (“When Pigs Fly!”), so she made sure to take a picture of the recently installed one-of-a-kind, interactive artwork, lovingly dubbed “the Oinkithopter.” It’s a variation of a large metal bird called “the Ornithopter.” Both were made by Richter, a German toy company. Since it was dawn, there was no one else in the riverfront park, but Joann figured out that you could climb inside the giant pig and then make it move up and down and flap its wings by pulling on the ropes attached to the huge steel wings.
When we finished at the riverfront, there was still time before the gates would open at the cemetery, so I set the GPS for a cross street that I hoped would take us to some historic gas street lights.
Luckily, the one location I had managed to find in my research turned out to be the center of the Clifton Gaslight District. Clifton was incorporated as a village in 1850. The Clifton farm, from which the village took its name, was 1200 acres of hills and dales. The city of Cincinnati annexed Clifton in 1893. If you’re like me, you probably thought that was more of a modern practice. Apparently, it’s been going on for far longer than I knew.
Cincinnati began to put in streetlights in 1837. In an 1875 inventory, 5,290 public gas lamps were counted, connected by 170 miles of mains and supply pipes.
Today, 1,109 are included in the National Register of Historic Places listing, spread throughout 13 of the city’s neighborhoods, as well as portions of Columbia and Sycamore townships. The oldest light in the inventory dates back to 1843.
The Ludlow Avenue business district of the Clifton neighborhood was designated as a “Main Street neighborhood” in the National Trust for Historic Preservation program. It is considered to be a walking neighborhood, since people living in the neighborhood can meet their needs locally for shopping and entertainment.
The neighborhood also has green spaces including Burnett Woods Park. At the edge of the woods, is a fountain sculpture created by Artist Matt Kotlkarczyk.
Even the drinking fountain in the Burnett Woods Park is historic with an old foot pedal.
In doing more research for this blog, I found that a few other cities have maintained some of their historic gas streetlights, but Cincinnati is the only one I could find that has theirs listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
One of the more interesting facts I found was that some authentic gas street lights from Baltimore were bought for $.03 a pound and line the streets of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. According to Wikipedia, Walt Disney said, “For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of their grandfather's youth." That’s what shunpiking does for us.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
In researching our 2016 trip to Ohio, we wanted to spend time at the historic Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati. The normal gate hours are 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., but we wanted to start photographing at dawn. I communicated with the cemetery office staff, trying to get someone from security to meet us at dawn, but when I hadn’t gotten confirmation before we left home, I decided we had to start the day somewhere else.
The downtown riverfront seemed like a good idea. We had made reservations at a small motel in Indiana, but when we arrived, we found that they didn’t even offer the kind of room we had reserved with them earlier that morning! We ended up crossing over into Kentucky and staying at another motel. In the morning, in the dark, we crossed back into Ohio and made our way to the riverfront.
Joann knows of my weakness for flying pigs (“When Pigs Fly!”), so she made sure to take a picture of the recently installed one-of-a-kind, interactive artwork, lovingly dubbed “the Oinkithopter.” It’s a variation of a large metal bird called “the Ornithopter.” Both were made by Richter, a German toy company. Since it was dawn, there was no one else in the riverfront park, but Joann figured out that you could climb inside the giant pig and then make it move up and down and flap its wings by pulling on the ropes attached to the huge steel wings.
When we finished at the riverfront, there was still time before the gates would open at the cemetery, so I set the GPS for a cross street that I hoped would take us to some historic gas street lights.
Luckily, the one location I had managed to find in my research turned out to be the center of the Clifton Gaslight District. Clifton was incorporated as a village in 1850. The Clifton farm, from which the village took its name, was 1200 acres of hills and dales. The city of Cincinnati annexed Clifton in 1893. If you’re like me, you probably thought that was more of a modern practice. Apparently, it’s been going on for far longer than I knew.
Cincinnati began to put in streetlights in 1837. In an 1875 inventory, 5,290 public gas lamps were counted, connected by 170 miles of mains and supply pipes.
Today, 1,109 are included in the National Register of Historic Places listing, spread throughout 13 of the city’s neighborhoods, as well as portions of Columbia and Sycamore townships. The oldest light in the inventory dates back to 1843.
The Ludlow Avenue business district of the Clifton neighborhood was designated as a “Main Street neighborhood” in the National Trust for Historic Preservation program. It is considered to be a walking neighborhood, since people living in the neighborhood can meet their needs locally for shopping and entertainment.
The neighborhood also has green spaces including Burnett Woods Park. At the edge of the woods, is a fountain sculpture created by Artist Matt Kotlkarczyk.
Even the drinking fountain in the Burnett Woods Park is historic with an old foot pedal.
In doing more research for this blog, I found that a few other cities have maintained some of their historic gas streetlights, but Cincinnati is the only one I could find that has theirs listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
One of the more interesting facts I found was that some authentic gas street lights from Baltimore were bought for $.03 a pound and line the streets of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. According to Wikipedia, Walt Disney said, “For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of their grandfather's youth." That’s what shunpiking does for us.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Sunday, June 14, 2015
The Historic Town of Thurmond, West Virginia
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
In the spring of 2010, as Joann and I were returning from North Carolina, I took the opportunity to plan the route past a couple of the highlights in West Virginia. Don’t get me wrong, we do want to spend a lot more time there, but I’ll need to do a lot more research before then.
One of the places that we did manage to visit was the historic town of Thurmond. Thurmond is in the New River Gorge, which is one of the most important natural areas in West Virginia.
Thurmond was a flourishing town, mostly due to the C&O Railway. At its height in the 1930s, the population of Thurmond was nearly 500. In 2013, the population was 5. It is the smallest incorporated town in West Virginia.
We laughed about how small the town hall was, but now, knowing that the town only has 5 residents, we know that little building is big enough.
Thurmond has a small row of remaining main street buildings, but it never had a main street. The railroad tracks ran just a couple of feet outside those buildings. At that point, the gorge is very narrow, and there was no room for tracks and a road. Just the tracks.
To enter Thurmond, you must cross a one-lane bridge. This one-lane vehicle bridge and the railroad bridge are side by side. Joann was a little reluctant to cross, wondering what might be happening on the other side. I wasn’t driving so I, of course, was telling her to just drive over it.
The first building you see is the restored depot. Today, it is a Park Service visitor center for the New River Gorge National River. It was built in 1904 to replace an earlier building that burned in 1903. It was enlarged in 1914, and was restored in 1995 by the park service.
The depot is also an Amtrak flag stop. Amtrak passes through three times per week, but only stops if there are passengers ticketed to or from the station. In the early years, 15 passenger trains per day passed through Thurmond, and it served 95,000 passengers per year.
The depot originally had three waiting rooms. One for white women, one for white men, and one for African Americans. It also housed a clerk’s office, trainmaster’s office, yardmaster’s office, car distributor’s office, and telegrapher’s cabin. The projecting bay served as a signal tower.
Many of the railroad buildings are gone now, but the coaling tower and sand house still stands as a testament to the coal that travelled through town. More freight used to pass through Thurmond than through Cincinnati, Ohio.
A few of the other main street buildings have been stabilized by the National Park Service and display signs about historic Thurman in the windows. One of those buildings is the former National Bank of Thurmond. It was built in 1917 and housed a jewelry company until 1922.
The National Bank of Thurmond acquired the building and renovated the front into what you see today. Originally, the building had cast iron storefronts, but the bank remodeled their half into a limestone façade.
The original plan was to renovate the buildings to be used for tourists, but no money was available, so only the depot was completely remodeled. The other buildings were stabilized or removed if they were past stabilizing or didn’t contribute to the historic district.
We hope to return to West Virginia, and if we do, we will probably return to the Thurmond area. If you find yourself in West Virginia, be sure to enjoy the natural beauty and small historic towns.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
In the spring of 2010, as Joann and I were returning from North Carolina, I took the opportunity to plan the route past a couple of the highlights in West Virginia. Don’t get me wrong, we do want to spend a lot more time there, but I’ll need to do a lot more research before then.
One of the places that we did manage to visit was the historic town of Thurmond. Thurmond is in the New River Gorge, which is one of the most important natural areas in West Virginia.
Thurmond was a flourishing town, mostly due to the C&O Railway. At its height in the 1930s, the population of Thurmond was nearly 500. In 2013, the population was 5. It is the smallest incorporated town in West Virginia.
We laughed about how small the town hall was, but now, knowing that the town only has 5 residents, we know that little building is big enough.
Thurmond has a small row of remaining main street buildings, but it never had a main street. The railroad tracks ran just a couple of feet outside those buildings. At that point, the gorge is very narrow, and there was no room for tracks and a road. Just the tracks.
To enter Thurmond, you must cross a one-lane bridge. This one-lane vehicle bridge and the railroad bridge are side by side. Joann was a little reluctant to cross, wondering what might be happening on the other side. I wasn’t driving so I, of course, was telling her to just drive over it.
The first building you see is the restored depot. Today, it is a Park Service visitor center for the New River Gorge National River. It was built in 1904 to replace an earlier building that burned in 1903. It was enlarged in 1914, and was restored in 1995 by the park service.
The depot is also an Amtrak flag stop. Amtrak passes through three times per week, but only stops if there are passengers ticketed to or from the station. In the early years, 15 passenger trains per day passed through Thurmond, and it served 95,000 passengers per year.
The depot originally had three waiting rooms. One for white women, one for white men, and one for African Americans. It also housed a clerk’s office, trainmaster’s office, yardmaster’s office, car distributor’s office, and telegrapher’s cabin. The projecting bay served as a signal tower.
Many of the railroad buildings are gone now, but the coaling tower and sand house still stands as a testament to the coal that travelled through town. More freight used to pass through Thurmond than through Cincinnati, Ohio.
A few of the other main street buildings have been stabilized by the National Park Service and display signs about historic Thurman in the windows. One of those buildings is the former National Bank of Thurmond. It was built in 1917 and housed a jewelry company until 1922.
The National Bank of Thurmond acquired the building and renovated the front into what you see today. Originally, the building had cast iron storefronts, but the bank remodeled their half into a limestone façade.
The original plan was to renovate the buildings to be used for tourists, but no money was available, so only the depot was completely remodeled. The other buildings were stabilized or removed if they were past stabilizing or didn’t contribute to the historic district.
We hope to return to West Virginia, and if we do, we will probably return to the Thurmond area. If you find yourself in West Virginia, be sure to enjoy the natural beauty and small historic towns.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Monday, June 25, 2012
Mary Worthington Macomb House
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
On our trip to Ohio this spring, Joann and I stayed one night in Chillicothe, Ohio. I had several historic locations marked for us to investigate, and I thought these would make good first light photo opportunities. Little did I know that we would still be in town nearing lunch time!
One of these locations was the historic Mary Worthington Macomb house which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The house sits in an industrial area of town on the banks of Paint Creek.
Mary Tiffin Worthington was born in Virginia (present day West Virginia) in 1797. She was the first child of Thomas and Eleanor Worthington. The following year, her family moved to the Northwest Territory. (The Northwest Territory existed from July 13, 1787 until May 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio. It included all of the land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River.)
Being from an affluent family, Mary and her younger sister Sarah attended boarding schools in Kentucky and Maryland, and Mary attended one of Dolly Madison’s tea parties at the White House.
When Mary chose David Macomb for her husband, her father did not approve. Even though he was from a prominent family, he was considered lower in society.
The land where the house was built was originally owned by Nathaniel Massie. A later owner of the land began building the two story sandstone house in 1813, and the house was completed two years later. The year the house was finished, Mary’s father, the future Governor Thomas Worthington, bought the property.
By 1819, David’s poor management of their finances forced them into debt and their belongings were sold at public auction. For a time, Mary and her family lived in this house which was owned by her father.
In 1825, David moved the family to Tallahassee, Florida. In 1835, hearing of a promising life in Texas, David moved the family again. Mary became ill on the trip to Texas and never recovered. She died in Texas in 1836 at the age of 39. David also suffered from failing health and was despondent over Mary’s death. He committed suicide a year later. They were buried in the wild woods of Texas and their graves have never been found.
The property in Chillicothe, on which the house stood, was converted for commercial use. By 1845, there were multiple new buildings around the structure including a frame building and a slaughterhouse. Those buildings are now gone, but the house remains, standing silent as a testament to early Chillicothe settlement.
If only these were the sort of things we learned in history class. Memorizing dates didn’t mean as much to me as being in front of these old historic locations and then learning something about the lives of the people who lived there.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
On our trip to Ohio this spring, Joann and I stayed one night in Chillicothe, Ohio. I had several historic locations marked for us to investigate, and I thought these would make good first light photo opportunities. Little did I know that we would still be in town nearing lunch time!
One of these locations was the historic Mary Worthington Macomb house which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The house sits in an industrial area of town on the banks of Paint Creek.
Mary Tiffin Worthington was born in Virginia (present day West Virginia) in 1797. She was the first child of Thomas and Eleanor Worthington. The following year, her family moved to the Northwest Territory. (The Northwest Territory existed from July 13, 1787 until May 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio. It included all of the land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River.)
Being from an affluent family, Mary and her younger sister Sarah attended boarding schools in Kentucky and Maryland, and Mary attended one of Dolly Madison’s tea parties at the White House.
When Mary chose David Macomb for her husband, her father did not approve. Even though he was from a prominent family, he was considered lower in society.
The land where the house was built was originally owned by Nathaniel Massie. A later owner of the land began building the two story sandstone house in 1813, and the house was completed two years later. The year the house was finished, Mary’s father, the future Governor Thomas Worthington, bought the property.
By 1819, David’s poor management of their finances forced them into debt and their belongings were sold at public auction. For a time, Mary and her family lived in this house which was owned by her father.
In 1825, David moved the family to Tallahassee, Florida. In 1835, hearing of a promising life in Texas, David moved the family again. Mary became ill on the trip to Texas and never recovered. She died in Texas in 1836 at the age of 39. David also suffered from failing health and was despondent over Mary’s death. He committed suicide a year later. They were buried in the wild woods of Texas and their graves have never been found.
The property in Chillicothe, on which the house stood, was converted for commercial use. By 1845, there were multiple new buildings around the structure including a frame building and a slaughterhouse. Those buildings are now gone, but the house remains, standing silent as a testament to early Chillicothe settlement.
If only these were the sort of things we learned in history class. Memorizing dates didn’t mean as much to me as being in front of these old historic locations and then learning something about the lives of the people who lived there.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Sunday, December 4, 2011
“Life as Well as a Living” - The Dougan Round Barn
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
We first visited the Dougan round barn in 1998 and, at that time, we couldn’t figure out how to get any pictures from the road. I don’t remember what time of day it was, but for whatever reason, we didn’t drive in and ask for permission to take photos.
Then, towards the end of October, 2010, I was on the phone with our youngest sister, when she asked me if we knew about or had pictures of the round barn east of Beloit. I told her we knew of it and had been by it once. She said there was an article in the paper about the city making plans to take down the old farmhouse and outbuildings in the coming weeks.
As I always do when I hear news of a historic property about to be demolished, I got on the phone to Joann and we made plans to drive south that weekend to photograph what we could ahead of the wrecking ball.
This true round barn was built 100 years ago in 1911 by Mark Twain Kellor for Wesson J. (Daddy) Dougan. Daddy Dougan had been a preacher until he suffered a hearing loss and turned to farming in 1906.
The barn is a large round barn which is 68 feet in diameter. Cows were milked in the bottom floor of the barn and hay was stored on the upper level. In the center of the barn is a concrete silo.
Painted on the side of the silo in front of the main doors are the following words:
The Aims of this Farm
1. Good Crops:
2. Proper Storage:
3. Profitable Livestock:
4. A Stable Market:
5. Life as Well as a Living:
W. J. Dougan
The barn was last used for dairying in 1969 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as part of the Centric Barns in Rock County group. While Wesson’s son Ronald owned the farm, local school children came each year to tour the farm and the round barn.
On that late October day, Joann and I picked up our sister Peggy and drove out to the farm. The old farmhouse was already a pile of rubble and equipment sat in the yard for further demolition work.
We walked around the property, noticing the old foundations near the house, and the few remaining outbuildings. As Joann photographed, Peggy and I peeked inside buildings and talked about what they might have been used for.
The barn had cables stretched around it to stabilize it. The main doors at the front of the barn were covered with sheets of plywood and many siding boards were missing. At the back of the barn, whole sections of siding were missing. Peeking inside the front doors, dappled light came through the many holes in the roof where the shingles were missing.
As early as 1996, the barn was condemned by the city of Beloit and slated for demolition. Shortly thereafter, preservation efforts began. The owner wanted the barn removed from the site and offered the barn for $1 if the barn was moved. For that to happen the barn would have had to be stabilized before the 100-plus tons of masonry and wood could be moved. Moving it would also have been problematic since it could only travel on roads where there was room for it, which would eliminate moving it over and under most bridges.
Preservation efforts never gained enough momentum to raise the funds necessary to replace the roof or to move the barn, which would have cost well into six figures. There were also differing opinions of what should be done with the barn. Some wanted to preserve the barn at its current location while others wanted to move the barn to a new location on the other side of the interstate.
Ronald’s daughter, Jackie Dougan Jackson, has published several books including “Stories from the Round Barn” and “More Stories from the Round Barn.” Most recently, she published a book entitled, “The Round Barn.” Soon these memories and many photographs may be all that is left of the Dougan round barn.
We’re sad to see the barn in its current state of disrepair, but we’re also thankful that we got to go and see the barn before it is gone forever.
If you hear of a historic property in jeopardy of demolition, please let us know. And if you have any interest in seeing the building for yourself, go check it out as soon as you can. You never know when it might be gone forever.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
We first visited the Dougan round barn in 1998 and, at that time, we couldn’t figure out how to get any pictures from the road. I don’t remember what time of day it was, but for whatever reason, we didn’t drive in and ask for permission to take photos.
Then, towards the end of October, 2010, I was on the phone with our youngest sister, when she asked me if we knew about or had pictures of the round barn east of Beloit. I told her we knew of it and had been by it once. She said there was an article in the paper about the city making plans to take down the old farmhouse and outbuildings in the coming weeks.
As I always do when I hear news of a historic property about to be demolished, I got on the phone to Joann and we made plans to drive south that weekend to photograph what we could ahead of the wrecking ball.
This true round barn was built 100 years ago in 1911 by Mark Twain Kellor for Wesson J. (Daddy) Dougan. Daddy Dougan had been a preacher until he suffered a hearing loss and turned to farming in 1906.
The barn is a large round barn which is 68 feet in diameter. Cows were milked in the bottom floor of the barn and hay was stored on the upper level. In the center of the barn is a concrete silo.
Painted on the side of the silo in front of the main doors are the following words:
The Aims of this Farm
1. Good Crops:
2. Proper Storage:
3. Profitable Livestock:
4. A Stable Market:
5. Life as Well as a Living:
W. J. Dougan
The barn was last used for dairying in 1969 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as part of the Centric Barns in Rock County group. While Wesson’s son Ronald owned the farm, local school children came each year to tour the farm and the round barn.
On that late October day, Joann and I picked up our sister Peggy and drove out to the farm. The old farmhouse was already a pile of rubble and equipment sat in the yard for further demolition work.
We walked around the property, noticing the old foundations near the house, and the few remaining outbuildings. As Joann photographed, Peggy and I peeked inside buildings and talked about what they might have been used for.
The barn had cables stretched around it to stabilize it. The main doors at the front of the barn were covered with sheets of plywood and many siding boards were missing. At the back of the barn, whole sections of siding were missing. Peeking inside the front doors, dappled light came through the many holes in the roof where the shingles were missing.
As early as 1996, the barn was condemned by the city of Beloit and slated for demolition. Shortly thereafter, preservation efforts began. The owner wanted the barn removed from the site and offered the barn for $1 if the barn was moved. For that to happen the barn would have had to be stabilized before the 100-plus tons of masonry and wood could be moved. Moving it would also have been problematic since it could only travel on roads where there was room for it, which would eliminate moving it over and under most bridges.
Preservation efforts never gained enough momentum to raise the funds necessary to replace the roof or to move the barn, which would have cost well into six figures. There were also differing opinions of what should be done with the barn. Some wanted to preserve the barn at its current location while others wanted to move the barn to a new location on the other side of the interstate.
Ronald’s daughter, Jackie Dougan Jackson, has published several books including “Stories from the Round Barn” and “More Stories from the Round Barn.” Most recently, she published a book entitled, “The Round Barn.” Soon these memories and many photographs may be all that is left of the Dougan round barn.
We’re sad to see the barn in its current state of disrepair, but we’re also thankful that we got to go and see the barn before it is gone forever.
If you hear of a historic property in jeopardy of demolition, please let us know. And if you have any interest in seeing the building for yourself, go check it out as soon as you can. You never know when it might be gone forever.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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