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Item Title
University of Illinois Round Barns, Urbana, Champaign County, IL
Location
Urbana, IL
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Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.
Notes
Survey number HABS IL-1211
Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (N841).
Building/structure dates:
1908 initial construction
0.2002
Significance: Between 1908 and 1912, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign erected three round barns for its department of dairy husbandry, now dairy science. The chief proponent of the development was Professor Wilbur J. Fraser, who administered the unit from within the University's Agricultural Experiment Station. Fraser was assisted by architects, Kell and Benard, and campus supervising architect, James M. White. Fraser, who helped found the American Dairy Science Association in 1906, endorsed the concept of round barns as a means of applying economical measures to the business of dairy farming. Structures round in plan provided more floor area to wall enclosure than rectangular ones. Moreover, there were economies in the feeding and milking processes. The barns had two floors, the lower floor for milking and the upper floor for stacking hay. Milking stalls were designed to accommodate the narrow shoulders and wide hips of the dairy cows. The stalls are placed in a radial manner to lessen the distances the herdsman would walk...The University of Illinois Round Barns were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Subjects
BarnsCircular BuildingsDairies
Related Names
Fraser, Wilbur J.
Kell & Benard
White, Prof. James M.
Doyle, Kate, Field Team
Muenchow, Michael, Field Team
Reed, Erin, Field Team
Stone, Sunny, Field Team
Braspenninx, Mara, Delineator
Campbell, Elizabeth, Delineator
Mihelich, Robert, Delineator
Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
Contents
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