Latest Structures Page 98

Gas City High School - East Ward School, Gas City Indiana

Gas City High School - East Ward School, Gas City Indiana

The Gas City High School was the first Gas City building designated for the education of high school students, and was the largest and grandest building within the neighborhood and the community. Harrisburg began as a speculative development in 1867, when John S. Harris platted 97 lots. Harris' entrepreneurial venture took advantage of the proposed Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, which began passenger service autumn 1867. By 1868, the town had grown and Harris platted the town's first addition. Two more additions were soon added. The town's population grew to 750, and then dropped prior to the discovery of natural gas in 1887. Free building sites and cheap energy propelled the influx of businesses and residents, including children. Capitalizing on

Snider-McFeeley Polygonal Barn, Huntington Indiana

Snider-McFeeley Polygonal Barn, Huntington Indiana

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

Hotel LaFontaine, Huntington Indiana

Hotel LaFontaine, Huntington Indiana

As the only major hotel building in Huntington, the Hotel LaFontaine served many years as a commercial center for Huntington. The original owner of the LaFontaine was J. Fred Bippus, descendant of a pioneer family. The hotel was named for Chief Francis LaFontaine, the last principal chief of the Miami Indian tribe. Constructed in 1925, the building was equipped with a dead level roof, a type new at that time, designed so that additional floors might be constructed without removing the roof. The skeleton of the building was designed to carry two more floors on the main portion of the building if desired, while the rear of the building was planned to carry six more floors. Because no ordinary beams could

Maria and Franklin Wiltrout Polygonal Barn, Corunna Indiana

Maria and Franklin Wiltrout Polygonal Barn, Corunna Indiana

The original owners of the barn were Maria and Franklin Wiltrout who likely purchased the barn as a kit from the Chicago House Wrecking Company, 35th and Iron Streets, Chicago. The Chicago House Wrecking Company placed an advertisement in The Indiana Farmer of January 6, 1912, page 24.

Ben Colter Polygonal Barn, Pleasant Mills Indiana

Ben Colter Polygonal Barn, Pleasant Mills Indiana

The Ben Colter (Reinhart) six-sided barn is located in rural Adams County, near Pleasant Mills, Indiana, just off of SR 101 and is surrounded by large, mature trees and an open field to the east. The barn is a direct link to the agricultural development that occurred in the state from 1850 to 1936 (and beyond) and has changed little since its construction c.1907 with the exception of the hog barn attachments that were added in 1915. 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 owner and builder of the barn was Ben Colter, a

Gamel Hexadecagon Barn, North Collins New York

Gamel Hexadecagon Barn, North Collins New York

The Gamel hexadecagon barn, built c. 1900, is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a central plan barn with a center silo built on a flat site without the use of an entrance ramp. Unlike other barns which utilized sloping sites and ramped wagon drives to bring wagons directly into the barns for loading, the Gamel barn relied on a system of hay forks and tracks to bring hay and silage into the barn through a hoistway and augmenting hay loft doors. In this respect, the barn is similar to a number of midwestern barns designed to accommodate flat sites. Architecturally, the Gamel barn is distinguished by its triple-tiered roofline and its board and batten exterior, which has the effect of making

Lyles Consolidated School, Lyles Station Indiana

Lyles Consolidated School, Lyles Station Indiana

Lyles Consolidated School in Lyles Station, Indiana is located within an African-American founded and named community. Lyles Station remains a predominantly black community and many of the present inhabitants are descendants of the original pioneers. Lyles Consolidated School provided education to many African-Americans during the era of racially segregated education in Indiana. Before the Civil War, the majority of African-Americans in Indiana resided in rural settings with farming as their source of livelihood. Isolation was their ally during this period, protecting them from prejudice and persecution. However, they lived in poverty, as black people generally received the poorest land and location. After the Civil War, many African-Americans migrated to urban areas with the prospects of receiving regular wages, a better education

Parker 13-Sided Barn, Jefferson New York

Parker 13-Sided Barn, Jefferson New York

The Parker Barn is located at the eastern fringe of the hamlet of Jefferson approximately one half mile east of the Jefferson square at the south side of Route 10. A conventional rectangular barn of the late nineteenth century is located immediately west of the 13-sided barn (connected by a hyphen), and a modern greenhouse has been attached to the south. A Queen Anne style farmhouse built c. 1890-1900 is located a short distance west of the subject barn and a small farm pond is located to the rear of the barn. The barn is 13-sided in plan, two stories in height and approximately 60 feet in diameter. It is built above a level grade with a relatively light wood framework

Zoller-Frasier Round Barn, Newville New York

Zoller-Frasier Round Barn, Newville New York

The Zoller - Frasier barn is located in a remote farming district in Herkimer County, some two miles south of the Mohawk River and eight miles east of Little Falls New York. The barn is situated at the top of a bluff overlooking the Mohawk Valley approximately 1000 feet north of Fords Bush Road. It is surrounded by open meadows to the north, west and south. At the east stands a Greek Revival period farmhouse, three small sheds, and woods. The barn is round in plan with a diameter of approximately 80 feet. It is constructed with clapboard-sided stud walls above a low mortared stone foundation wall and features a conical roof with a round cupola. The ground features a concentric

Oakdale Public School, Oakdale Pennsylvania

Oakdale Public School, Oakdale Pennsylvania

Abandoned for Over 25 Years, the Building was Converted to Apartments in 2001

Initially settled as a farming community at the intersection of two creeks, Oakdale subsequently grew into a prosperous industrial and mining town as the result of several influences: the establishment of Thompson's Grist Mill, in 1849; the completion of the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865; the beginning of speculative real estate development by C. Hanson Love, a land developer from Pittsburgh, in 1866; and the fervor of The Oil Excitement and coal mining, attracting drilling outfits and oil and coal companies to the town, beginning in the 1870s. The railroad made the area accessible for development, and the natural resources made it attractive. Among the industrial concerns that settled in Oakdale were Carnegie Coal Company and Breuning Cork

Lattin-Crandall Octagon Barn, Catherine New York

Lattin-Crandall Octagon Barn, Catherine New York

The Lattin-Crandall barn is located approximately one mile east of the hamlet of Catharine on Schuyler County, Route 14 in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. The barn is situated approximately 300 feet south of the road, behind a modest and much altered 1½-story Greek Revival period farmhouse and an undistinguished one-story shed. The barn is octagonal in plan with a 55-foot diameter. A two-story gable-roofed rectangular addition with a single story lean-to at the north extends approximately 45 feet to the east and appears to have been added very shortly after the initial construction of the original barn. The octagon barn is covered with board and batten siding above a stone foundation. The rectangular addition has vertical plank

Charles S. Foos Elementary School, Reading Pennsylvania

Charles S. Foos Elementary School, Reading Pennsylvania

Built in 1903, this Vacant School Building in Reading PA Closed in 1979

The Charles S. Foos Elementary School is one of only seven remaining school buildings of the more than 50 existing in Reading in 1923, and it is unique as the only school in the Classical Revival style. Foos was constructed in 1903 in the northwest section of Reading, a middle class neighborhood of Queen Anne houses which began developing in the 1890's. Known then as the Douglass and Weiser School, it served grades 1-8. Originally designed by Mr. Head as an 8 room Victorian Romanesque school house (typical in Reading), it occupied the eastern portion of the block and was the first school in Reading to have an extensive playground, 110'x 114', purchased for that purpose in 1906. In 1912, it

Quakertown Passenger and Freight Station, Quakertown Pennsylvania

Quakertown Passenger and Freight Station, Quakertown Pennsylvania

Quakertown's growth is directly due to the prosperity brought by the railroad. By the turn of the twentieth century, a railroad station which reflected the importance of the town and the rail line was deemed necessary and the current Quakertown train station was constructed. Part of the significance of the train station complex is as one of the important resources associated with an important transportation network. The North Penn Railroad was a key element in the transportation history of Bucks County. It served both as a railroad that met the transportation needs of the local population found along its line, and at the same time it served as a very important link in the regional rail system linking Philadelphia to the

Lunn-Musser Octagon Barn, Garrattsville New York

Lunn-Musser Octagon Barn, Garrattsville New York

The Lunn-Musser octagon barn is an early example in New York State of the octagon prototype popularized by Elliot Stewart and introduced to Otsego Co. only three years earlier by the Baker Octagon barn in the nearby town of Richfield. The barn, built in 1885, shares many of the structural characteristics associated with the Baker barn including a center square of posts and diagonally braced wall panels. Despite the loss of its original cupola during a windstorm in 1976, and the addition of a single story wing and two small milkhouses, the barn retains virtually all of its identifying characteristics including its mortared stone foundation walls, its original structural framework and its original exterior siding. The barn continues in its original

Metropolitan Edison Building, Reading Pennsylvania

Metropolitan Edison Building, Reading Pennsylvania

Reading was the founding home base of the Metropolitan Edison Company. One month before Thomas A. Edison lit the first street lights in New York City the citizens of Reading witnessed a demonstration of electric lights... this was in August of 1882 when a New York firm shipped to Reading a dynamo and 20 arc lamps. The shipment was made to J. H. Cheetham, who operated a planning mill at Franklin and Carpenter Streets. This equipment was temporarily installed for demonstration purposes, and members of the Board of Trade, city officials and the general public attended these demonstrations on several nights. Following this, talk persisted of forming an electric company, which was organized several months later. On March 8^th, 1883, barely

McArthur-Martin Hexadecagon Barn, Bloomville New York

McArthur-Martin Hexadecagon Barn, Bloomville New York

The McArthur-Martin barn is the earliest fully integrated central plan dairy barn known in New York State. It is also the largest central plan barn known to have been built in the state. Designed by owner John W. McArthur and built in 1883 from plans prepared by John Muir, a local builder, the concept for this barn is strongly related to the widely published 1865 Shaker round barn in Hancock, Massachusetts. Like the Shaker prototype, the design is developed around a huge central hay mow designed for efficient filling and access with stanchions oriented inward for ease of feeding. In addition, to the advantages of a more efficient barn operation, described in detail in a published essay authored by McArthur, the

J.L. Noble School, Altoona Pennsylvania

J.L. Noble School, Altoona Pennsylvania

The J. L. Noble School was built in 1912 by the Juniata Borough School Board as a neighborhood elementary school to alleviate overcrowding in its older schools. This was the last school built by the Juniata board prior to the annexation of Juniata by the City of Altoona in 1929 and represents that parallel system that predates the consolidation of the urban and suburban school systems of the area. It should be noted, however, that both names, Altoona and Juniata, are still used to distinguish addresses in Juniata because there are similar street names and property numbers in use in both areas. The annexations of 1929 were the most important in the history of Altoona. They practically doubled the acreage of

Baker Octagon Barn, Richfield Springs New York

Baker Octagon Barn, Richfield Springs New York

The Baker Octagon barn, built in 1882, is the earliest known example of an octagonal dairy barn to survive intact in New York State. Closely modeled on a prototype developed by Elliot Stewart and first published in 1876, the barn incorporates Stewart's general design, overall dimensions, stanchion arrangement, and wall and roof framing. It departs from Stewart's model in several interesting ways. An additional, intermediate story was inserted, probably for threshing, with a pass-through from east to west for grain carts; in Stewart's barn threshing was done in the center of the loft. The Baker Barn also differs from Stewart's model in its structural design. It includes a center square of posts that runs upward to the cupola, giving intermediate support

Bronck Farm 13-Sided Barn, Coxsackie New York

Bronck Farm 13-Sided Barn, Coxsackie New York

The Bronck barn, built c. 1832, is the earliest known central plan dairy barn in New York State. Built for Leonard Bronck and completed by a contractor referred to in secondary sources as Lampman, the concept and design of this nearly round structure appear to have been inspired by the slightly larger round stone barn built by the Shaker community in Hancock, Massachusetts (only 28 miles away) in 1824. Since the Shaker barn was destroyed by fire in 1864 and since no similar examples have yet been identified, this barn is singularly important in interpreting the early evolution of this building type. In its original configuration, with the no longer extant rectangular west wing, the barn appears to have been organized

Kelly Round Barn, Halcottsville New York

Kelly Round Barn, Halcottsville New York

The Kelly round barn (c.1893) is architecturally and historically significant as one of the earliest entirely round barns in the state and as one of the first examples to feature a round silo at the center. The barn incorporates an innovative balloon framing system composed of stud walls and laminated plates constructed of light members nailed together after having been bent into place. It also incorporates the unique feature of a grade level bridge, extending through the attic of the barn and passing over the central silo from an adjacent hillside ramp. The bridge represents an innovative solution to the problem of filling the hay mow and silo and takes full advantage of the hillside site. A round barn at St.

Book Title Abandoned Palaces (Abandoned Places)

Abandoned Palaces (Abandoned Places)

Book Title Abandoned America: Dismantling The Dream

Abandoned America: Dismantling The Dream

Book Title Abandoned America: Then & Now: A Fun & Fascinating Look Revisiting America's Abandoned Places of the Past

Abandoned America: Then & Now: A Fun & Fascinating Look Revisiting America's Abandoned Places of the Past

Book Title Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind

Abandoned Malls of America: Crumbling Commerce Left Behind

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