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Simonds 10-Sided Barn

Town of Greenfield, WI. - The Wisconsin Historical Society placed the Simonds 10-Sided Barn in the Town of Greenfield, Sauk County on the State Register of Historic Places in November. 

The Simonds 10-Sided Barn is a small dairy barn, built in 1916 and having a stone and concrete foundation, and wood board-and-batten walls.  The barn has feeding stalls on the lower level, the haymow on the second level, and an off-set round silo near the center.  One of only 112 known centric barns in Wisconsin, the Simonds barn is unusual for its 10 sides and off-set silo.  Such agricultural buildings are exceptionally rare, and their number is slowly, but steadily, decreasing.

Constructed by Orville and Otto Kramer, two brother carpenters from nearby Baraboo, this barn was built for Benjamin Simmonds who not only had a small dairy farm but was a school teacher.  It is possible, given Simonds education and the physical proximity of the Sauk County Fairgrounds, that the barn’s design was inspired by other centric barn forms actively promoted by professional agriculturalists, academic research stations, and farm publications during the period.  The construction of the Simonds barn parallels a period of intensive dairy farming and concern for progressive improvement in rural life in the history of Sauk County.  The property exchanged hands a number of times before being purchased by the Eschenbach family, who operated the dairy farm from the 1940s to the 1970s.

The State Register is Wisconsin's official list of state properties determined to be significant to Wisconsin's heritage. The State Historic Preservation Office at the Wisconsin Historical Society administers both the State Register and National Register in Wisconsin.

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org. 

About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.