John McCarty Round Barn, Filson Illinois

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This barn was constructed in 1911 for John McCarty's 160-acre family farm, "Linwood". The oak for the barn was cut from an 80-acre wood lot about one-half mile northeast of the farm.

The barn was but one manifestation of McCarty's leadership in the agricultural community. As an agricultural student at the University, McCarty wrote a thesis on feeding, was persuaded of the round barn's virtues by the work of Wilbur J. Fraser, and graduated in 1904. His associations with the agricultural school continued for about 30 years. In the 1920s, he was one of the first farmers to raise soybeans, advocated by the school as a means of restoring nitrogen to the soil. Foreign students toured the farm as a model of American agricultural productivity on the recommendation of the University.

When the Farmer's Home Administration was established during the depression of the 1930s, the agricultural school's high estimation of his capacities resulted in his appointment as the director for Douglas County. By 1939, McCarty managed a half dozen farms and moved from "Linwood".

Horace Duncan, the barn's carpenter, was perhaps one of the most significant builders of round barns. He is known to have built nine other round barns in three midwestern states between 1906 and 1918, Indiana (4), Illinois (3), Ohio (1) and South Dakota (1)

The largest of these barns is the 102-foot diameter barn at Lake View, Ohio McCarty's barn was constructed with a "self-supporting roof" which Wilbur J. Fraser proclaimed was best because it doubled the mow's capacity.

With Issac McNamee and Frank Littleton, Duncan patented (1905) one of four types of self-supporting roofs whose increasing popularity explained the round barn's increasing popularity, according to Fraser's last promotional pamphlet.

This 60-foot diameter barn has verticle siding, a poured concrete foundation, a single-hip roof and a cupola whose top is 60 feet above grade. Ten single stalls and five double stalls on the ground floor were fed from a loft. A central driveway bisects the barn bilaterally on an east-west axis.

The barn is in good condition, although a shed (approximately 20 feet high by 40 feet long) has been joined to the barn at the northwest quadrant.

(1982)

(1982)

(1982)

(1982)

(1982)

(1982)