Snider-McFeeley Polygonal Barn, Huntington Indiana

Date added: April 10, 2023

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Indiana
Barn
Round Barn

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The Snider-McFeeley Polygonal Barn was located in Huntington County's Lancaster Township just south of Huntington, Indiana. It was demolished sometime around 2011. 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 property was George McFeeley who had a rectangular, gambrel-roofed barn built in "pioneer days" but the barn soon proved to be too small for the growing farm operation. In 1906, McFeeley's son-in-law, S. C. Snider decided to expand the barn by attaching a twelve-sided structure on the southwest side, Also, the rectangular barn was remodeled at this time. Snider, who had no previous design or construction experience, set out to merge the two decidedly different structures and the result was amazingly ingenious. On the lower level of the rectangular barn there were cows on the west and horses on the east while the twelve-sided barn contained a large cattle room. Box stalls, a built-in water trough and the careful planning of double action gates throughout the lower level contributed to the efficiency of the structure in addition to such features as a centralized manure carrier system that ran through both of the barns' midsections from northeast to southwest. The upper level was devoted to the storage of hay and straw. The farmers had successfully distinguished themselves from their neighbors both near and far. The efforts of Snider and McFeeley were widely heralded in farm journals, including a large write-up in The Farmer's Guide on July 11^th, 1908.

In Indiana, there were eighteen twelve-sided barns constructed, making it the third most prominent style of the 219 round and polygonal structures built (behind true circles [151] and octagons [33]). The barns were built in Allen County (Adams Township, razed), Clinton County (Michigan Township, extant), Huntington County (Huntington Township, extant), the Snider-McFeeley (Shearer) Barn, Huntington County (Polk Township, razed), Kosciusko County (Washington Township, extant), LaGrange County (Newbury Township, extant), Marshall County (three in Greene Township, with two being extant and one razed), Miami County (Washington Township, razed), Parke County (Raccoon and Greene Townships, both razed), Ripley County (Jackson Township, extant), Shelby County (Noble Township, extant), Tippecanoe County (Randolph Township, extant), Wabash County (Lagro Township, razed) and White County (Princteon Township, razed). Of these, only two were constructed before the issuance of the 1905 patent (Clinton and Wabash County examples), thus showing that the vast majority of the twelve-sided structures were most probably built to skirt the patent rights of McNamee, Duncan and Littleton. Finally, of the eighteen built and the ten that remain, this is the only twelve-sided barn that is merged into a rectangular barn.

The Snider-McFeeley Polygonal Barn is an unusual and unique example of a polygonal barn, being the only one of its kind in the state that really exhibits a merger of polygonal and rectangular shapes. Other barns that exhibit a sound and well-planned attachment of round and rectangular shapes include barns in Decatur County (Washington Township, Strauther Pleak barn, extant), and Marshall County (Greene and German Townships, both extant). However, none of these examples shows a total outgrowth of one structure into the other. Further, due to the age of this building, it can be assumed that the twelve sides were in response to patent rights that were issued on round barns in 1905, with most of Indiana's twelve-sided barns built after 1905.

Barn Description

The Snider-McFeeley Polygonal Barn, located in rural Huntington County, just south of Huntington, Indiana, is an excellent and unique example of a twelve-sided barn. Built in 1906 by S. C. Snider and George McFeeley, this barn is reached by a drive off of SR 9/37 and is completed by the frame farmhouse to the northeast. The site is composed of mature trees and cultivated fields on all sides.

The twelve-sided, two-storied barn is topped by a sectional three-pitch gambrel roof which is in turn crowned by a round cupola with a conical roof. The cupola contains louvered vents to aid in the distribution of light and air to the upper reaches of the barn. Adding a unique touch, the twelve-sided barn is built into a rectangular barn that dates to the nineteenth century. Apparently, the rectangular barn was not large enough so a multi-sided structure was built to expand the space in a creative manner. It would appear that the 1800s barn was extensively remodeled in conjunction with the addition, possibly including the addition of a gambrel roof (such roofs are uncommon on Indiana barns before 1900). The balloon frame wall construction rests firmly on the poured concrete foundation.

The roof surfaces are now covered in asphalt replacement shingles, an alteration that minimally affects the historic integrity of the barn. There is a slight overhang to the roof with exposed rafters and roof decking visible in the soffit region. The walls of the twelve-sided structure are sheathed in the original horizontal wood siding while the rectangular barn is covered in vertical wood siding.

Looking to the northeast facade, the front of the rectangular barn is apparent with its central sliding doors mounted on an overhead track and extending to just short of the eave line. On either side are shorter doors, again sliding type and mounted on overhead tracks. All of the doors are composed of vertical wood planks with the central doors having an arch motif painted on them. There are five equally spaced openings that originally contained six-light windows which are now missing on the northwest and southeast sides of the rectangular barn. Following this, the walls of the twelve-sided barn seem to grow out of the rectangular one, with the roof surfaces of the two barns sloping down to a valley at the connector's midpoint.

The twelve-sided barn has a large door on the first face, off of the connector on the northwest side, followed by six-light windows centered on each wall section around to the southeast side. On the southeast side, there is another set of double sliding doors that are opposite the doors on the northwest. Both of the doors on the twelve-sided structure are painted in a similar arch motif like those on the rectangular barn. The rest of the wall sections are without openings.

The interior of the building is an ingenious use of irregular spaces that resulted from the marriage of a twelve-sided and rectangular barn. Inside of the rectangular barn is a central drive that extends from the main doors into the center of the twelve-sided structure. Along the north side are a series of eight cattle stalls, followed by a walkway. Along the south side are seven horse stalls, again followed by a walkway. On both sides, these stalls extend from the main drive to the exterior walls and the first stalls inside the main doors are sectioned off from the rest by swinging gates. Additionally, these stalls run through the connector and into the twelve-sided barn. The connector contains two box stalls, one on either side of the main drive and then gates that fence off the rectangular barn's stalls from the twelve-sided area. Also, there is a built-in concrete water trough in the southeastern corner of the southern box stall. The twelve-sided barn is characterized by the angular termination of the central drive with a gate on the southeast that lines up with the exterior door. Around the perimeter then is a large, undivided cattle room with three feed chutes along the exterior wall.

The upper level is post-free and an open area for the handling and storage of hay and straw. Inside the twelve-sided barn, a laminated beam is present at the base of the cupola and supported by timbers that cross the span and divide it into twelve, equally spaced wedges. Below this and at the intersection of the upper and second roof sections is another laminated beam that is braced across its width in a manner similar to the cupola. This beam is followed by the last laminated beam at the juncture of the second and third roof pitches. The roof trusses in between these laminated beams are then laid up straight with triangular wedges resulting at the joining of each of the twelve sides of the various roof pitches.

The connector space between the twelve-sided and rectangular barns is also worthy of investigation. Here, the roof sections of the twelve-sided barn are braced across the central drive by a massive timber that is in turn supported at both ends by the outside walls and by posts buried in the central drive's walls. Additional support for the gambrel roof of the rectangular barn is garnered by large posts that extend from the floor to the intersection of the lower and middle roof pitches. The result is an ingenious coupling of the two structures that not only increased the usable barn space to the owner but also gave a noticeable and unique landmark to the surrounding area and the state.