News from Garfield Farm

Barns 101 & 201 Lectures at Garfield Farm Museum Campton Hills, IL-On Saturday October 19th at 10 am and resuming at 1 pm two lectures at Garfield Farm Museum by David Bauer, museum special projects director, will be given on barns that gave the Midwest its iconic landscape. All three of the museum’s significant barns will be highlighted with a tour of them afterwards.      Just as the first log houses that occupied early Illinois are a rare sight today, wooden barns that defined farming in the 19th and 20th century will not survive the 21st century. Barns 101 will focus on barn terminology, their European antecedents, the evolution of the American barn, roof types, and modern barns which will be followed by a tour of the museum’s barns until 12 noon.  It helps to have attended the morning sessions to fully enjoy Barns 201 at 1 pm as methods for dating a barn, mortise and tenon techniques, truss designs, barn alterations, timber framing vs. plank and balloon framing, and silos will be discussed followed by a tour of the barns. This is the last generation that will have known barns as part of the rural landscape. With the changes in agriculture, most historic barns no longer meet the size needs of large machinery or large livestock herds on present day farms. As a result, forces of nature, consolidation of small farms into large farms, economics, and the passage of time is totally eliminating what was once such a dominate feature of the American countryside. However, museums, inveterate barn lovers, and adapting barns for homes and businesses offer a chance that more might survive their initial construction purpose.     The lectures are $6 per person per lecture and refreshments will be provided. Reservations can be made by contacting the museum at (630) 584-8485 or info@garfieldfarm.org. Garfield Farm Museum is a 375 acre historically intact former 1840’s Illinois prairie farmstead and teamster inn that volunteers and donors are preserving as an 1840’s living history museum. The museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, Illinois off IL Route 38 on Garfield Road.