From the 1890s until about 1930, round barns in the Midwest were the "next big thing." They were purported to be more efficient than rectangular barns, especially for dairy. Land grant universities actively encouraged farmers to build them, and many did.

With livestock on the bottom level and hay stored above, one of the appeals of the smaller round barns was that the upper levels were clear-span, which farmers loved. The larger barns also were clear-span, except for a derrick tower in the middle, which supported their massive roofs. 

But claimed efficiencies notwithstanding, the unconventional structures had another less tangible, but nevertheless very attractive, feature. "They were cool," says Rick Collins, an Illinois-based timber framing specialist with extensive experience with old barns. "And because they were cool, they became a fad."

Collins speculates that the coming of the Great Depression spelled the end of the round barn boom.

"A prosperous time in agriculture had come to an end, and from about 1930 for several years, barns that were built reverted to rectangular structures, and they were smaller."

In the almost 100 years since, Father Time and Mother Nature have tag-teamed to eliminate most of these magnificent structures from the countryside. The few that remain are historical, architectural and cultural treasures.

Tornado strikes

Gary Kingen farms with sons Joel and Jake near McCordsville in Hancock County on the site of Indiana's largest remaining round barn, which measures a whopping 102 feet in diameter. Originally built in 1899-1900 for an Indianapolis lawyer and state Rep. Frank Littleton, the barn has been under the Kingen family's stewardship since 1903. To say that Kingen has an emotional attachment to the barn is a monumental understatement.

"My great-grandpa was farming here when the barn came into our family," Kingen says. "Then my grandpa, dad and now me. As a kid, I built hay tunnels in it, and me and some of my buddies even camped out in it on New Year's Eve. We had livestock and 4-H steers in it, and I can't guess how much hay I put up in it. My sons, daughters and grandkids all have a history with this barn."

So, imagine Kingen's distress when the barn was struck by an F2 tornado on Feb. 27, 2023.

"I felt real bad,” Kingen remembers. “The doors had all blown off, you could see through parts of the roof, portions of the foundation had given way, and the barn was leaning. Plus, we had high winds for several days after the tornado, and you could hear it popping and cracking. I really thought it was going down."

But even in his anguished state, the thought of just letting the barn succumb to nature never crossed his mind.

"I knew it was going to get repaired,” Kingen says. “It was going to get fixed one way or the other."

Kingen is a member of the Indiana Barn Foundation, which aims to preserve Indiana's historic barns. The IBF put him in touch with Rick Collins, who has helped repair and restore barns around the world.

Saving the barn

Collins, who was familiar with Kingen's barn from having toured it at an IBF event in 2017, showed up to assess the damage the day after the storm. He determined that the main structure of the barn was salvageable, but that the foundation needed to be replaced in some places and fortified in others. Also, the lower supporting walls had been so badly damaged that another big wind would have crippled it beyond repair.

A few weeks later, Collins produced a detailed plan for saving the barn. He used a process he calls "value engineering,” which means not restoring it to mint condition but putting it back into serviceable and sustainable condition at the most reasonable cost.

"Our goal was not to make it perfectly round again — that's not worth it," Collins says. "Plus, most people's funds are not unlimited, and there has to be a stopping point."

A crew commenced work in June 2023. To stabilize the barn's derrick tower and, in turn, the whole structure, a giant, 12-inch-thick, 32-foot diameter, heavily rebar-reinforced concrete pad with radiating reinforced footer/spokes was poured at the base of the barn's lower level. Some portions of the foundation were totally replaced, while other portions were reinforced.

Damaged sections of the lower supporting walls were rebuilt. Heavy-duty struts, emanating from the derrick tower to the roof's framework, were added to provide increased rigidity and redundancy. The work was finally completed just before Thanksgiving. The outside of the barn still is bowed some, but the structure is much more solid than when the tornado struck it.

"We put a bunch of stuff in it that should have been in it from day one," Collins says. "It's way better than it was, and our goal was to make [it] able to withstand a 120-mph wind."

Kingen says that the upstairs floor of the barn is much more rigid that it was, and that he plans to use it for machinery storage, "for about anything that will fit through the main door."

Kingen was extremely pleased with the work, but having a huge barn being repaired for five months isn't cheap. Was it worth it?

"Oh, heavens yes," he grins.