| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
Took five years to complete. Annala came to the U.S. from Finland in 1902. 60 FT DIAM BARN W/2 FT THICK FIELDSTONE WALLS W/ VERY LITTLE MORTAR. SEGMENTAL ARCH 2/2 WINDOWS AND TRANSOMED DOOR. FIELDSTONE HAYLOFT EMBANKMENT W/ BULL & CALF PENS BENEATH. ROUND LOUVERED CUPOLA W/ SHALLOW CONICAL ROOF. 4 HAYLOFT WINDOWS BENEATH FLARED ROOF. ADDITIONAL PHOTO CODE IS OWW 1746 CS.
SAID TO BE THE ONLY ROUND STONE BARN IN WISCONSIN. SMALL ROUND STONE STRUCTURE NEXT TO BARN IS MILKHOUSE (AHI #0018640).
Like most of the Finnish immigrants who came to northern Wisconsin between 1890 and 1910, Annala settled here with the goal of farming the cutover lands, a former forest that had been clear cut by loggers. When the clay soil, punctuated with stumps and boulders, proved unsuitable for agriculture, Annala, like his neighbors, turned to dairy farming.
To shelter his cows from frigid winters, Annala built this round fieldstone barn around 1917. The structure the only known example in the state to be made entirely of stone. In general, round barns were more numerous in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois than anywhere else in the nation (see VE1), perhaps because of their reputed ability to withstand high winds. He enlisted his neighbors, and with his sons’ help they constructed a barn with the abundant local fieldstone. Annala’s masonry required little mortar to fit the multi-colored stones. Along the ground floor he filled the walls with windows set in segmental arches, since sunlight was important for raising healthy cows and, according to experts of the day, acted as a natural germicide (see MQ2). Then he crowned the building with a two-pitched gambrel roof, using a drum-and-hoop support system formed of hemlock rafters, surmounted by a circular cupola for ventilation. Inside, he constructed a central silo, also of fieldstone (the clay tile extension at the second story was added in 1938). In 1943, Annala built the fieldstone ramp up to the wagon entrance on the second floor, probably a replacement for an earlier one.
Around 1928, Annala added a round milk house next to the barn. The abundance of mortar reflects relatively little attention to fieldstone craftsmanship. Nonetheless, beaded mortar joints and a cobblestone chimney help to create a charming structure. Annala originally designed the chimney to resemble a milk bottle, but he left it unfinished. Until the mid-1940s, he piped fresh milk from the barn to the milk house, where he bottled it for delivery to area markets. |
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