Bixler, George, Farm

Set on level upland in northwestern Montgomery County, Ohio, the George Bixler Farm is a 93-acre working farm centered on a ca. 1852 five-bay brick I-house. Its interior remains largely intact, with black walnut trim, an original staircase and a walk-in kitchen fireplace with a cooking crane. Beside it stands a 48-by-100-foot Pennsylvania Sweitzer barn with hewn timber framing, along with a long tobacco barn, a drive-through corn crib, a wood house, an early 20th century garage and a 1953 steel silo. Bixler built up the farm through the mid-1800s, growing corn, wheat and tobacco and raising livestock, and it expanded to 185 acres by the 1880s. The farm was listed for its agricultural importance in the Miami Valley and for its well-preserved Mid-Atlantic building traditions. Its period of significance runs from about 1852 to 1953, when the silo was added.