Gempeler Round Barn, Spring Valley Wisconsin
The Gempeler round barn, nestled in a picturesque hilly setting typical of western Rock County, is significant for its ingenious construction, with its main story supported by an inverse pylon made up of an oak trunk upside down in the center of the basement. It was wider at the top to provide bearing for the floor, according to the former owner and son of the builder, who watched the construction as a 12-year old boy. The trunk was cut from a tree on the farm and set onto a cement block base about a food wider around it. The surrounding floor was dirt, until cement was added about 15 years ago. The ground floor rafters were trimmed to fit them together in a circle on top of the post; the last one was toe-nailed into place. Sills were laid on the foundation, of random limestone which was quarried on the farm. The studs were tied to the bottom and spiked through the joists.
As the circumference was large enough, the lapped siding boards were bent around the studs and nailed into place. Headers were nailed into rafters on the ground; the rafters were hoisted up by ropes. Gempeler watched one .of the barn builders ride the rafters upward to tighten them into place, and come back down by ladder. The rafters were stabilized by the collar, which also supported the cupola. The collar boards were prepared by being sawn away at intervals, almost halfway through, so they would bend in a tight circle.
The barn was constructed by the Hasse brothers, from Durand, Illinois, in the summer and fall of 1912. They had evidently shown the owner some of their work on barns near Tyrone, Illinois.
Chris Gempeler had bought the farm in 1902; he raised Guernsey cows. Young stock stayed in the center, around the post, with an aisle between them and the about 28 cows and 11 horses, who faced them around the outside. All were fed from this aisle. A stave silo was added just to the southeast about 1920; the present concrete silo replaced it about 1930 after the other blew down.
The son, Chester Gempeler, continued to farm after his father's retirement, taking out the horse stalls and eventually switching over to Holsteins. Electricity was added ca. 1930, and interior braces added to the mow ca. 1938. He found the barn "handy to do work in." He continued using the barn until 1967 when the farm was sold.
Building Description
The Gempeler round barn is 68' in diameter, and almost that high, according to Chester Gempeler, the son of the owner for whom the barn was built. The barn is not built around a silo but is constructed around a strong central post, which supports the basement story. This post is a solid oak trunk over 9 feet high, set upside down like an inverted pylon. It is 2 1/2 feet at the base and 3 feet in diameter at the top, from where a contiguous web of 3" x 10"s which circles the basement ceiling and is supported by 6" x 8" posts. More rafters extend to the outer wall. The central corral is open, but the outer spaces, about 12 feet wide, are broken up into pens around the circumference. The entrance to the basement story is at the south. There are sets of four-paned windows which flank the door and also appear, with less frequency, at the east and west portion of the basement. The foundations are of rough, random limestone, almost two feet thick. The lapped siding is a weatherbeaten red. The conical roof is covered with worn asphalt over the original wood shingles. It is topped by a cylindrical, cone-roofed cupola with louvers.
The mow floor is relatively open. It is entered at the north, on a natural rise of ground, through tall sliding doors, which conform to the rounded sides of the barn. The studs around the wall are 18' high and about 30" apart. Though windows are relatively few, their panes are gone, and the weather-beaten red siding, asphalt shingled roof, and wood floor are now in poor enough condition to admit more light and weather than the builders had intended. About 1930 a rectangular framework was constructed inside, south of the entrance, with triangular bracing to strengthen the roof against a developing torque movement. A grain storage room is on the right side; otherwise it is open. The posts of this framework were notched to receive its beams, which in turn support a ladder that rises to the cupola. Half the rafters, which are aligned on the plate above the studs, reach all the way to the collar below the cupola. Every other one reaches only as far as a circular band of headers about halfway up the roof, which also supports a hay track.
The collar is braced with rectilinear cross pieces, leaving a central square opening through which one can climb up the ladder into the cupola. Some of the horizontal louvers which have come loose from the cupola are hanging on the framework, until they can be restored. In spite of added bracing, the roof has pitched and buckled somewhat, which sets the cupola slightly askew. A rounded pent overhang over the south basement story of the barn is to shelter the cows. An attached pen, built as a 15' long wedge shape because of the circular contour of the barn, is adjacent to the southeast. The barn is still usable for cattle on the ground story, but the holes in the mow floor make it relatively unsafe for the storage of hay.
The farmhouse has been extensively altered and the outbuildings are either altered or much newer.
