By Joann M. Ringelstetter
In April 2017, after having taken four previous trips to the southern and central parts of Ohio, we decided to return with a focus on northern Ohio. On the afternoon of our first full day in that beautiful state, we traveled the Lincoln Highway to the small rural town of Gomer. In her research, Ruth had discovered a large American Gothic barn and we knew we had to go find it.
As we drove through the small residential section, we noticed the town hall for Sugar Creek Township. In front of this old-fashioned town hall building was a historical sign. It said, “1833, Gomer, Ohio, A Welsh Settlement. A village settled by the Watkins, Roberts, and Nicholas families, bringing with them their Welsh traditions and establishing a community in honor of their native land.”
Next to the town hall was a small commercial building, tucked tightly between the town hall and a large house. In front of this small building, between the sidewalk and the curb, was an old Coca Cola sign. We wondered if it had been a small grocery store. At the bottom of the Coca Cola sign was a hint, in very faded letters, of a later purpose: “Gomer Dad’s Club.”
We left these two interesting buildings and started looking for the barn we had come to see. But it was sitting a long distance back from the Lincoln Highway and we couldn’t really get a good look at it. So, we drove into a church parking lot hoping to find a good place to view the barn. The parking lot was lined with large evergreen trees, so it wasn’t looking good. I got out of the car and walked to the edge to peer between the trees. And there it was, a good view of the farm but, again, it was quite a distance away. In the photo below, you can see the view I had, with a pump house on the left, the barn in the center, and what I thought was probably a granary on the right.
I figured the only option I had was to use my biggest zoom lens and take just a couple of photos due to only one angle being available. But there was an angel on my shoulder, as there often is when I am photographing. As I stood there desiring to get closer to this gorgeous and historical barn, a lawn tractor came zooming across the lawn near the barn. I quickly walked towards it to see if I could get permission to photograph the barn up close.
The man on the lawn tractor saw me walking toward him, so he stopped and shut off the mower. I introduced myself and he, in turn, said his name was Bill and that he was the owner of the barn. He gave me a bit of information about the barn and permission to walk around and photograph it and the other farm buildings. The lawn surrounding the buildings was huge, so I let him get back to work. As I walked around taking photos, I had to keep waiting for Bill and his tractor to move out of my frame as he crisscrossed the lawn.
Bill had told me that the roof of the barn was made of slate and that the tiled turret that rose above the various lines of the roof was the top of an interior water tower. I had seen water towers on a few farms but had never seen one that was built into a barn.
As I prepared to write this blog, I spent a couple of hours trying in vain to find out more information about this beautiful barn, but I couldn’t find much. But then, another angel landed on my shoulder and one last search turned up some detailed information written by Ohio-born artist Robert F. Kroeger, who recently visited and created a beautiful painting of this unique barn. According to Mr. Kroeger’s research, the barn was built, circa 1890, by Richard E. Jones, Gomer’s first physician. Dr. Jones had come to Gomer in 1848 at the age of 14 when his family immigrated from Wales.
Dr. Jones had stored the grain from his crops in this barn. He also kept his horses and buggies in the barn, taking them out when he traveled or made house calls.
The three dormers of the barn were covered in expensive circular slate tiles. And one of the three, pictured below, has a large circular vent in the center of it. According to Mr. Kroeger, slate tiles often came from Wales and this allowed American barn and house owners to bring a bit of their native country to their new homes in America.
In the photography log that we use to record information about the photos we take, we had called this a Gothic barn. But I wasn’t sure if that was an accurate description of the architectural style. Before finding Mr. Kroeger’s history of the barn, I searched in one of my often-used reference books called “The Old Barn Book: A Field Guide to North American Barns & Other Farm Structures.” Imagine my surprise when I discovered a photo in this book of the building that was next to this barn, which we assumed was a granary. Mr. Kroeger’s document said this building was a granary and the doctor’s farm office. The field guide said this building was a carriage house, done in Victorian style. It was probably all these things at one time or another.
The field guide also explains that this type of cupola, with louver ventilators on all four sides, is typical for the Victorian Gothic style.
One final note about the little building next to the town hall that I mentioned at the start of this blog post: Bill said that it had been a barber shop in its heyday. He also told me that they used to make hamburgers in the back of the barber shop. You really have to talk to the locals if you want the little details that you’ll never find in books or on the internet!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label barns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barns. Show all posts
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Barnstorming Iowa
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
In the early fall of 2006, just after Joann bought her first digital camera, we planned a 3-day trip to Iowa. We had stumbled on some information about barn tours in the state, and decided that since you could tour the inside of barns, rather than just taking all photographs from the road, we would go and see what the tours were like.
The tour was state-wide, so we decided that we would leave on Friday, photographing our way to the area where we were going to visit some of the barns on the tour. We would tour barns on Saturday and Sunday when the barns were open, then photograph on the way home.
You probably already have an idea of how this went! We had only been to Iowa photographing a couple of times before this, so every area we went to was new to us. Iowa has many counties with Quilt Barn Trails, and we ended up chasing quite a few of those barns.
Barns on the tour open at 9:00 A.M., but we like to get out early, so we had to find something else to do until the barns opened. On the second morning, we left our motel and headed to the historic Fields stone barn outside of Cedar Falls.
This historic limestone barn was built in 1875 by William and Charles Fields, and once housed prized stallions. By the time I found out about the barn, it was already starting to crumble in the back, and I knew we had to visit at our first opportunity.
There were rumors of a tunnel from the barn to the farmhouse, which was reported to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, but no tunnel was ever found.
Sadly, the barn continued to deteriorate, and even though locals tried to find funding to repair the barn, it was demolished in December of 2008.
We made our way to Story County and visited the Handsaker barn. Finally we were at a barn on the tour! It was a square barn built in 1875. A table in the downstairs of the barn was covered with many containers of cookies and bars. The treats were baked by the barn owner, who was getting up in age, and didn’t come out to the barn. Her family members were answering questions about the barn and offering the treats.
The barn also had a barn bridge leading to the second story. These are less common than the traditional bank barn with an earthen ramp.
We stayed Saturday night in Pella, and the following morning, we didn’t have a set destination for our starting point, so I picked a road heading east and we took off.
We were lucky enough to stumble on this old feed store. It had such a unique front on it, and all of the windows were still there.
We had the location on our wish list to return to, but by 2010, all of the windows were boarded up with plywood. Recent pictures from 2015 show the building still standing, and still boarded up. Again, we were so very lucky to have found the place with the windows and doors intact.
We did manage to visit a couple more barns on the tour as we headed towards home. We also discussed our approach to these trips and decided we should try to make it to as many barns on the tours as possible on our trips.
For several years, that’s exactly what we did. And then we figured out that we were driving too many miles and passing up other opportunities. So, we’ve come full circle, and we pick an area, try to fit in as many barn tour barns as we can, but also stop at other interesting things while we’re in the area.
If you’re interested in the barn tours, you can find information at the Iowa Barn Foundation website. The spring/summer tour is this weekend, June 10 & 11. If you don’t mind hot and humid, and have no weekend plans, you could go and check them out. (We had planned to go, but we both hate hot and humid!) These are some of the only barn tours we’ve found that are self-guided rather than paying a fee and riding a bus to the barns. This way you can stay as much or as little time as you would like at each barn.
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
In the early fall of 2006, just after Joann bought her first digital camera, we planned a 3-day trip to Iowa. We had stumbled on some information about barn tours in the state, and decided that since you could tour the inside of barns, rather than just taking all photographs from the road, we would go and see what the tours were like.
The tour was state-wide, so we decided that we would leave on Friday, photographing our way to the area where we were going to visit some of the barns on the tour. We would tour barns on Saturday and Sunday when the barns were open, then photograph on the way home.
You probably already have an idea of how this went! We had only been to Iowa photographing a couple of times before this, so every area we went to was new to us. Iowa has many counties with Quilt Barn Trails, and we ended up chasing quite a few of those barns.
Barns on the tour open at 9:00 A.M., but we like to get out early, so we had to find something else to do until the barns opened. On the second morning, we left our motel and headed to the historic Fields stone barn outside of Cedar Falls.
This historic limestone barn was built in 1875 by William and Charles Fields, and once housed prized stallions. By the time I found out about the barn, it was already starting to crumble in the back, and I knew we had to visit at our first opportunity.
There were rumors of a tunnel from the barn to the farmhouse, which was reported to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, but no tunnel was ever found.
Sadly, the barn continued to deteriorate, and even though locals tried to find funding to repair the barn, it was demolished in December of 2008.
We made our way to Story County and visited the Handsaker barn. Finally we were at a barn on the tour! It was a square barn built in 1875. A table in the downstairs of the barn was covered with many containers of cookies and bars. The treats were baked by the barn owner, who was getting up in age, and didn’t come out to the barn. Her family members were answering questions about the barn and offering the treats.
The barn also had a barn bridge leading to the second story. These are less common than the traditional bank barn with an earthen ramp.
We stayed Saturday night in Pella, and the following morning, we didn’t have a set destination for our starting point, so I picked a road heading east and we took off.
We were lucky enough to stumble on this old feed store. It had such a unique front on it, and all of the windows were still there.
We had the location on our wish list to return to, but by 2010, all of the windows were boarded up with plywood. Recent pictures from 2015 show the building still standing, and still boarded up. Again, we were so very lucky to have found the place with the windows and doors intact.
We did manage to visit a couple more barns on the tour as we headed towards home. We also discussed our approach to these trips and decided we should try to make it to as many barns on the tours as possible on our trips.
For several years, that’s exactly what we did. And then we figured out that we were driving too many miles and passing up other opportunities. So, we’ve come full circle, and we pick an area, try to fit in as many barn tour barns as we can, but also stop at other interesting things while we’re in the area.
If you’re interested in the barn tours, you can find information at the Iowa Barn Foundation website. The spring/summer tour is this weekend, June 10 & 11. If you don’t mind hot and humid, and have no weekend plans, you could go and check them out. (We had planned to go, but we both hate hot and humid!) These are some of the only barn tours we’ve found that are self-guided rather than paying a fee and riding a bus to the barns. This way you can stay as much or as little time as you would like at each barn.
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Places with Faces
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
On a road near my home, a road that I take on the way to almost everywhere, there is a very large family farm. About three years ago, a dented silver tank (possibly a milk tank) appeared in the weeds at the edge of the farm buildings. It made me smile because it seemed to have a rather sad face, along with a nose ring. After driving by it for over a year, I finally stopped to take a few photos of it. That was two years ago and the sad-faced tank is still there.
After taking that picture, I got to thinking about how many times Ruth and I see faces on the structures we photograph. When the faces are painted on the structure, they are almost always happy faces, like the one on this barn.
Or the one on this big steel tank.
On a road near my home, a road that I take on the way to almost everywhere, there is a very large family farm. About three years ago, a dented silver tank (possibly a milk tank) appeared in the weeds at the edge of the farm buildings. It made me smile because it seemed to have a rather sad face, along with a nose ring. After driving by it for over a year, I finally stopped to take a few photos of it. That was two years ago and the sad-faced tank is still there.
After taking that picture, I got to thinking about how many times Ruth and I see faces on the structures we photograph. When the faces are painted on the structure, they are almost always happy faces, like the one on this barn.
Or the one on this big steel tank.
Or this iconic yellow smiley face on a water tower in Eagle, Wisconsin.
But the faces we see that are made up of windows and doors and missing boards are the most fun for us. Maybe you’ll think we’re crazy, especially when we stretch the imagination, but creativity and seeing what others don’t see is what gives us the most satisfaction. Here’s a barn with a missing board or two that makes for a stream of tears coming from the “eye” on the left.
I think the most fun is to put words to the expressions on the faces. Here are a few of my favorites:
“Would you guys stop squeezing so hard? I’ve got a headache!”
“Nobody seems to care about us old barns anymore. I mean, look at my roof!”
“I’m watching you, so don’t think you can get away with something!”
“Don’t look now, but somebody’s following you!”
“Jimmy, you get back in here and clean your room. I’m not going to tell you again!”
I hope you’ve enjoyed these places with faces. I’ll leave you with this optimistic thought:
“Smile, God Loves You!”
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Monday, May 30, 2016
Lost and Found – The Barn on the Rustic Road
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
Over the years of photographing, Joann and I have lost the locations of several photographic subjects and later managed to find them again. Most of the locations were from our earliest days of photographing when we weren’t so diligent about logging the location of each photo.
About a year ago, Joann said she was looking for the photos of a barn on a Wisconsin Rustic Road that we had visited sometime earlier. No matter how she searched the logs, she couldn’t find it. I tried my hand at searching, and I couldn’t find it either.
Joann had a reason for looking for it, but when she couldn’t find it, she found another photo that would suffice. Later, as she was processing other photos, she stumbled on the photos from the day we had been at that barn on the Rustic Road.
She started to wonder what the barn looked like now, several years later. The roof had some problems already in 2009, and the roof of a barn is the most vulnerable, especially in our harsh Wisconsin winters.
She asked me to put it on our “return to” list for as soon as possible. So, on August 5th, of 2015, we returned to Vernon County to capture this barn and a few other locations we had on the list. We didn’t have a lot of time that day, but we made sure to get there just before we had to head for home. With a backdrop of a gorgeous blue sky with puffy white clouds, Joann took a few photos, and we headed for home.
Then on September 22nd, we were beginning our fall photography with our annual trip to the apple orchard. As we were eating our “breakfast” of apple cider donuts (it was close to 11:00 A.M. by that time), we talked about how close we were to Vernon County, and maybe we should run past the barn again.
This time we approached from the opposite direction from our previous visit and drove the Rustic Road backwards. It’s really interesting how different locations and subjects look just by driving them a way you haven’t before. A different season, a different direction, a different time of day, can all affect what you notice.
This time Joann took some close-ups of windows, the vents, and hay hood.
This barn has metal vents, and one has a weathervane on top. Vents on barns were to ventilate the hay. Spontaneous combustion is a threat to farmers who store newly baled hay in barn lofts. I remember our father always monitoring the hay after it was in the barn, checking for hot spots.
Hay hoods on barns extended out from the top ridge of the barn over the pulley mechanism for lifting hay into the loft. Not all barns have a hay hood. We always loaded hay into the barn using a bale conveyor and a lot of manual labor.
Joann had already asked if we could return again in winter after we got some snow on the ground. So, on January 14th of 2016, after a pretty good snow, we headed west again with a goal of getting some good winter pictures of the barn on the Rustic Road.
When a barn’s roof begins to go, we start to worry. What if we have a winter with a lot of wet heavy snow? Many a barn is standing in the fall, and by the end of winter, either the roof has fallen in, or the whole barn has toppled over.
We didn’t want this barn to suffer that fate before we could get our photos. We made sure to get there with a little more time than we had given ourselves before. Joann stopped the car farther down the road and took some shots.
Then we moved the car closer to the barn and she pulled over as far as she could (harder to do in the winter with plowed snowbanks at the sides of the road), and ventured off with her tripod, camera, and extra equipment bag.
She walked along the roads around the barn, taking photos from every direction. She knew we might be lucky and find the barn still standing the next time we pass by, but the barn could just as easily be but a memory when we return. In this case, we drove the road three times in one year, but it was after we hadn’t driven the road for five years.
If you’re driving down a Wisconsin road and you see a “Jct Rustic Road” sign, consider taking a slight detour to drive the road. You never know what you might find!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Over the years of photographing, Joann and I have lost the locations of several photographic subjects and later managed to find them again. Most of the locations were from our earliest days of photographing when we weren’t so diligent about logging the location of each photo.
About a year ago, Joann said she was looking for the photos of a barn on a Wisconsin Rustic Road that we had visited sometime earlier. No matter how she searched the logs, she couldn’t find it. I tried my hand at searching, and I couldn’t find it either.
Joann had a reason for looking for it, but when she couldn’t find it, she found another photo that would suffice. Later, as she was processing other photos, she stumbled on the photos from the day we had been at that barn on the Rustic Road.
She started to wonder what the barn looked like now, several years later. The roof had some problems already in 2009, and the roof of a barn is the most vulnerable, especially in our harsh Wisconsin winters.
She asked me to put it on our “return to” list for as soon as possible. So, on August 5th, of 2015, we returned to Vernon County to capture this barn and a few other locations we had on the list. We didn’t have a lot of time that day, but we made sure to get there just before we had to head for home. With a backdrop of a gorgeous blue sky with puffy white clouds, Joann took a few photos, and we headed for home.
Then on September 22nd, we were beginning our fall photography with our annual trip to the apple orchard. As we were eating our “breakfast” of apple cider donuts (it was close to 11:00 A.M. by that time), we talked about how close we were to Vernon County, and maybe we should run past the barn again.
This time we approached from the opposite direction from our previous visit and drove the Rustic Road backwards. It’s really interesting how different locations and subjects look just by driving them a way you haven’t before. A different season, a different direction, a different time of day, can all affect what you notice.
This time Joann took some close-ups of windows, the vents, and hay hood.
This barn has metal vents, and one has a weathervane on top. Vents on barns were to ventilate the hay. Spontaneous combustion is a threat to farmers who store newly baled hay in barn lofts. I remember our father always monitoring the hay after it was in the barn, checking for hot spots.
Hay hoods on barns extended out from the top ridge of the barn over the pulley mechanism for lifting hay into the loft. Not all barns have a hay hood. We always loaded hay into the barn using a bale conveyor and a lot of manual labor.
Joann had already asked if we could return again in winter after we got some snow on the ground. So, on January 14th of 2016, after a pretty good snow, we headed west again with a goal of getting some good winter pictures of the barn on the Rustic Road.
When a barn’s roof begins to go, we start to worry. What if we have a winter with a lot of wet heavy snow? Many a barn is standing in the fall, and by the end of winter, either the roof has fallen in, or the whole barn has toppled over.
We didn’t want this barn to suffer that fate before we could get our photos. We made sure to get there with a little more time than we had given ourselves before. Joann stopped the car farther down the road and took some shots.
Then we moved the car closer to the barn and she pulled over as far as she could (harder to do in the winter with plowed snowbanks at the sides of the road), and ventured off with her tripod, camera, and extra equipment bag.
She walked along the roads around the barn, taking photos from every direction. She knew we might be lucky and find the barn still standing the next time we pass by, but the barn could just as easily be but a memory when we return. In this case, we drove the road three times in one year, but it was after we hadn’t driven the road for five years.
If you’re driving down a Wisconsin road and you see a “Jct Rustic Road” sign, consider taking a slight detour to drive the road. You never know what you might find!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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