Frank Senour Round Barn - Crandell Barn, Blackhawk Indiana

Date added: April 20, 2023

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Indiana
Barn
Round Barn

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The Senour Round Barn is located in Pierson Township of Vigo County, Indiana. The Senour Round Barn illustrates how agricultural literature helped to foster the round barn idea, since Mr. Senour used such a journal as the source for his barn design. The barn is an important and direct link to the agricultural development that occurred in the state from 1850 to 1936 (and beyond) and has changed very little since its completion in 1905, with the exception of the cupola, which was lost to a tornado in 1922. By 1936, round and polygonal barns were considered obsolete and the last round structure was built in the state to replace a 1915 round barn that had burned (Grant County, Richland Township, extant).

The original owner of the barn was Frank Senour, a local farmer who got the idea for the barn from the Indiana Farmer. Quite industrious and wishing to build the state-of-the-art barn that would put his farm at the forefront of agricultural technology, Senour built the barn in 1905 with wood shingles, siding and frame atop a poured concrete foundation. Other improvements to the property included a chicken coop, frame farmhouse, garage and shed. When finished, Mr. Senour had a large true circular structure with projecting entries on the north and south with animals housed on the lower level on either side of the central drive. The upper level hay mow was obviously designed to store hay and straw.

The Senour family owned the farm for a number of years until they sold the property to the Baker family. The Baker family owned it for a few years before selling to Jim and Catherine Hughes in 1954. The Hughes sold to Courtney and Rose Crandell in 1972, the current owners. The Crandells maintain the barn and financed the new asphalt roof in the early 1980s, an improvement that was needed to save the roof system from the deterioration of leaks. Today, the Crandells use the barn to house their Belgian horses on the south and hogs are penned on the north. Additionally, the barn stores tack, buggies, tractors along with the upper level's hay and straw.

One of the unique design elements of the barn is the use of four dormers to add light and ventilation to the upper level. A cupola was a part of the original design but a 1922 tornado destroyed the cupola and it has not been replaced. Only six extant Indiana barns have dormers such as these, which differ from hay dormers that allowed access to the hay mow with large doors or windows. These barns were built in Boone County (Jefferson Township), Clinton County (Michigan Township), Jay County (Wayne Township), Madison County (Boone Township), Montgomery County (Union Township) and the Senour (Crandell) barn. The barn that most closely resembles the Senour barn's dormer configuration is the one in Jay County, located on the grounds of the Jay County Fairgrounds. This barn, although octagonal, has the four upper level dormers like the Senour Barn, in addition to eight dormers located closer to the eave line. All in all, the dormer arrangement and occurrence on the Senour Round Barn is quite unusual and aesthetically pleasing.

The Senour Barn is an unusual and interesting example of a true circular barn, being one of the six extant examples with this dormer arrangement. There were 219 round and polygonal barns built in Indiana between 1850 and 1936 and of these, 151 were true circles, with only 77 remaining today.

Barn Description

Rural Vigo County just south of Terre Haute, Indiana, is the home of the Senour Round Barn, a true circle built in 1905 by owner Frank Senour. Located west of Indiana 159, the site is reached off of the county road by a long drive that runs to the north past the house and then turns west, passing the garage and ending with a shed on the west. The drive makes another turn to the south just past the garage with this fork revealing the true circular structure. To the southeast of the round barn is a rectangular chicken coop and to the west is a modern pole barn. The entire site is surrounded by mature trees and cultivated fields to the south, west and north.

The true circular, roughly 50 foot diameter, two-storied structure is capped by a conical roof with four dormers on the north, south, east and west. These dormers contain louvered vents to allow ventilation to the upper level. Dormer walls are composed of wood shingles. On the east and west, the main doors are housed in projections that are shielded by shed-type roofs that are curved to mimic the shape of the barn. Finally, the balloon frame wall construction is anchored firmly to the poured concrete foundation.

The roof surfaces are now covered in asphalt replacement shingles, a modern alteration replacing the original wood shingles. The rafters and roof decking are exposed in the soffit which is created by the slight overhang to the eaves. The wall surfaces are sheathed in the original vertical wood siding that is still well-maintained.

The main facade on the east reveals the large entrance projection that fills the space between the eave of the main roof and the ground. The doors are large sliding doors mounted on overhead tracks, one and one-half story in height and composed of vertical planks. There is an identical door on the west and a smaller sliding door on the north to allow passage of humans and animals. Continuing around the barn from the east to the north, there are two evenly spaced four light windows, followed by the small north door and then two more evenly spaced windows. The south half of the barn between the west and east doors is comprised of a series of four, four light windows. The rhythm established by their placement would indicate five windows evenly spaced around the south half but there is no opening on the southwest. The upper level has the entrance projection roof occupy the east and west faces of the barn. The north and south halves of the structure have five evenly spaced louvered vents.

The interior of the structure is very spacious and well designed with a central drive running from east to west and pens located on the north and south sides. On the north side of the central drive is a large pen that is broken only by a centrally located, rectangular corn crib. Sliding gates on both sides of the corn crib allow access to the pen. Further, on the east end is a permanent ladder that ascends to the upper level. South of the drive is a narrow walkway/manger that runs parallel to the drive. Off the walkway is a centrally located storage bin. Completing the lower level around the barns perimeter, moving from west to east, are three milk stanchions followed by four pens, all of which have feed troughs toward the barn's center. The floor joists of the upper level can be seen from the lower level with the area north and south of the drive containing inwardly radiating joists braced by a laminated beam and support posts buried in the walls of the corn crib and storage bin. The joists over the central drive run north to south and are supported by beams and posts along the line of the central drive. Finally, the foundation and flooring are composed of concrete. The simple yet efficient lay out is used today for the housing of horses on the south and pigs on the north.

The upper level, reached via the ladder, is an open area for the storage of hay and straw. There is a central area that corresponds to the drive that is raised on the west and open to below on the east. This open area accommodates the delivery and handling of hay and straw and the raised portion takes advantage what could be wasted space if the entire length of the drive were left open. Finally, there is a centralized grain bin that has a drop chute to the central drive below.

The roof system is a study in engineering and planning with the stick trusses being supported by an intricate system of braces, cross-braces and laminated beams. Located about one-third of the way down the roof from the apex and at the base of the dormer windows is a large laminated beam that supports the top portion of the roof. This beam is braced and cross-braced against itself by a network of timbers that divide the resulting circle into eight pieces. Located at intervals around the upper circle are additional braces that attach to the roof trusses and the inward web of timbers. Furthermore, near each dormer is another brace that links the laminated beam to the upper roof section, thus offering much needed intermediate support close to the extra weight of the dormer units. The remainder of the roof transfers its load to the outer walls where the weight is then transferred to the poured concrete foundation.