{"nrhp_refnum":"84001152","name":"Fehr, Charles, Round Barn","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NE of Orangeville","address_restricted":false,"city":"Orangeville","county":"Stephenson County","state":"IL","lat":42.496122910000054,"lon":-89.52239036899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-02-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A round barn, 56 feet in diameter, built in 1912 on a poured concrete foundation in rural Stephenson County, Illinois, northeast of Orangeville. It was built by Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas brothers.","why_significant":"The barn illustrates the evolution of design among the round barns in the thematic nomination. It is the first barn in the group built with a hipped roof, a feature probably added to increase mow capacity. It also shows that local builders could introduce design changes without guidance from the agricultural experiment stations at Madison, Wisconsin, and Urbana, Illinois.","narrative":"This round barn in rural Stephenson County, Illinois, northeast of Orangeville, was built in 1912 for Walter Knott by Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas brothers. It measures 56 feet across and sits on a poured concrete foundation. A central concrete shaft supports the loft, with joists radiating from its top like spokes; the construction date and builders' names are inscribed on the shaft's east side. The loft is reached by an earthen ramp on the west, while animals enter on the southeast. Braced walls and a braced single-hip roof are covered with sheet metal over the original drop siding and asphalt shingles. Only the silo and cupola have been lost. The barn matters as part of a group of Illinois round barns because it was the first of them built with a hipped roof, probably to gain more hay storage. It also shows local builders making design changes on their own, without advice from the agricultural experiment stations in Wisconsin and Illinois.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas brothers","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Original design is unaltered except for a lost silo on the southeast quadrant and the cupola; the original drop siding is covered by sheet metal.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.991391-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/52/8914/28891452/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/84001152.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001152/bc876bd4b5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001152/bc876bd4b5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"IvoShandor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orangeville_Il_Fehr_Round_Barn2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">IvoShandor</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orangeville_Il_Fehr_Round_Barn2.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891452","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fehr_Round_Barn","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5077611"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/stephenson-county/fehr-charles-round-barn-84001152/"}