Kelly Round Barn, Halcottsville New York

Date added: April 02, 2023 Categories: New York Barn Round Barn

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. Benoit-du-lac, Quebec features a similar bridge without the silo.

The Kelly barn appears to illustrate the influence of Franklin H. King's circular Wisconsin barn of 1890, which was widely published in the 1890's. King's chief innovations include his light member framing and central round silo.

Barn Description

The Kelly round barn is located approximately 650 feet east of Route 30 at the base of a steep hillside near the east branch of the Delaware River. The area is characterized by open meadows and scattered buildings in the valley and wooded hillsides. A log cabin sales office, manufacturing and storage plant is located approximately 700 feet northwest of the barn. The nominated site includes the barn and a two-acre site 250 feet in width north to south and 300 feet in length east to west.

The barn is circular and approximately 90 feet in diameter. It is two stories tall with a low sloping conical roof, interrupted by a taller bridge which runs east-west above the upper story. The bridge projects beyond the eastern edge of the barn and is supported on a stone retaining wall on the hillside. To the west the bridge ends in a gable wall flush with the curved wall below. There is a low stone foundation. Both stories have stud walls covered with shiplap siding. The studs are 2" x 8"s on the ground floor and 2" x 4"s at the upper level, in both cases 24" on center. The roof rafters are set 3 feet apart and span between the exterior walls and arched headers at the sides of the bridge, curved to conform with the roof shape and also carrying the walls of the bridge. This header is supported on the floor of the bridge which in turn is held up by two interior bents with 8" x 8" posts and the walls of the central silo which runs from the ground floor to the bridge, at the center of the barn. The roof has wood shingles now covered with asphalt.

The ground floor housed the cows in a circular row of 51 stanchions with the manger inside around the silo and the gutter around the perimeter. At the stanchion line are 3" x 8" posts 30" on center providing an intermediate bearing point between the exterior walls and the silo which, at this level, was framed with 3" x 6" studs 16" on center and covered outside with horizontal butt siding and inside with vertical tongue-and-groove siding. Over the stanchion posts was a header which carried 3" x 8" joists set radially.

The main entrance to the ground floor was from the South, though there were numerous other doors, most to various additions. There were also 20 small awning windows for ventilation, spaced irregularly around the circumference.

On the upper floor was hay storage around the center silo. By running across the entire top of the barn, the bridge could be used to fill both the silo and the hay mow around it. At this level the silo is framed with 3" x 4"s 30" on center and has butt siding on the outside only one half of the way up. The vertical siding inside runs all the way up to the silo's top. The upper floor was a group of three low windows to the south and four high windows placed east, north, west and southwest.