Shown is a barn more than 100 years old sitting near SR 15, north of Claypool. Note the doors on the road side of the barn, which would have allowed for easy horse and wagon access to the road in the earlier years.

CLAYPOOL — Duncan Campbell, board member of the Indiana Barn Foundation, looked at a photo of the old barn along SR 15, north of Claypool, and said the style has its origins in the English threshing barn, sometimes referred to as the English three-bay barn.

He said these barns can be identified by a number of attributes. The main wagon doors are always on the long or eave sides of the structure, and when opened allow for a horse and wagon, or tractor, to drive through the barn from one side to another. Traditionally, this type of barn was used only for grain storage and was always one story tall under a simple gable roof.

After talking with others knowledgeable about old barns, I came to the conclusion the barn on SR 15 does not fit exactly or nicely into a particular style such as would be the case of even older barns. Farmers adapted barns as time went by and since this barn was built in 1910, it would mean it is a variation of an English threshing barn. Campbell noted the original nearly square floor plan became elongated as new bays were added.

“Eventually this form can be quite large, especially when adapted for animals, but the basic form, which you see in your example, is relatively small and maintains the eave side wagon doors,” he said. “Your example also has a lean-to shed on one end, another common adaptation either for additional wagon storage, or more typically, built for tractors or farm machinery that could not be left out in the weather.”

He added a barn of this type would be timber framed, either of hand hewn or sawn timbers, or sometimes both in the same barn. The shed addition appears to have a concrete foundation, but the forward corner of the main building, though, appears to be perched on stones, a typical arrangement for early barns. It also looks like stones or concrete blocks have been placed under the edge of the barn.

Those familiar with the history of this area, just north of CR 550S along SR 15, will likely remember it was once known as the Reece farm. The farm is on both sides of SR 15, including a house built in the 1890s across the road from the barn.

Don Ring lives nearby and has farmed for several years. He recalled the barn was used for livestock and was surrounded by a farmyard with horses and cows. There was also a corn crib on the north end of the barn at one time.

Old Indiana Department of Transportation road plans for SR 15 show the barn and surrounding farmyard, as well as a garden and a shed with a well inside. The shed has since been removed and the farmyard was at some point turned in to crop rows. Public sale advertisements in 1918 and 1923 Silver Lake newspapers show cattle, hogs and horses were on the farm and also a corn planter, among many other pieces of farming equipment.

When the barn was built in 1910, the property was owned by George Raker. Since then, in addition to the Reece family, it has changed ownership several times.

Recalling the phrase “if these walls could talk,” one can only wonder what stories this old barn could tell.