top of page

Saving Indiana's Last Round Barns


Frank Littleton would not be outdone. An Indianapolis attorney and state lawmaker, Littleton owned a 360-acre farm in the McCordsville area in Hancock County. In 1901, colleague and fellow attorney Wymond Beckett built a round barn on his Dearborn County farm. It measured 100 feet in diameter, making it the largest building of its kind in the state. Two years later, Littleton hired the same builder to erect a round barn 103 feet across and 103 feet tall.

“Just to kind of spite his buddy,” DNR architectural historian Amy Borland said. These two barns are noteworthy not only because of their size but also because they remain upright and in remarkable shape. Only 73 round or polygonal barns are left in Indiana.

Round barns and their architectural predecessor, polygonal barns, have always been rare, even in their heyday. In researching his 1993 book, “A Round Indiana, Round Barns in the Hoosier State,” author John T. Hanou verified the construction of 226 such barns in Indiana between 1874 and 1936.While only a fraction of Hoosier farmers owned one, Indiana boasted more than any other state, according to Hanou.