Fire & Rescue / Emergency Response
Gilmore Octagonal Barn
Francis and Kannon Gilmore built the octagonal barn (also called "the round barn") around the end of the 19th Century, between 1898 and 1907. The structure is registered with the Greene County Historic Society with a date of 1899. To see the barn, drive east on Highway 160, approximately four miles outside of Ash Grove city limits.
The gently sloping land on which the barn sits provides natural grade-level entrances to both the first and second levels. The foundation is limestone quarried from the farm. The lower level walls, cut limestone blocks, are a full two feet thick, and the two cattle entrances to this first level, on the east and north, are arched with brick. Four windows at the first floor level are also brick-arched.
Upper walls, at the second drive-in level, are a foot thick. The mortar holding the limestone blocks together was made of lime, sand and water--no cement was used. The sectional cone roof now has green composition shingles covering the older wood shingles. The roof is topped with an eight-sided slatted cupola which admits both light and ventilation into the hay mow.
Inside, on the first level, is an octagonal feeding trough, surrounding a corn crib which extends into the second level. The third level of the barn is a hay mow, which has held as many as 6,000 bales of alfalfa.
A maze of joists, beams, and rafters, probably cut from farm timber, provide structural integrity as well as visual pleasure to the interior. The intricate angles are snugly fitted, and most structural beam joints are pegged.
This page was last updated on: 09/12/2007