Does any one remember this barn or is it perhaps still standing? Louis Ramseyer built this unusual barn in April, 1916 with the help of hired men and friendly neighbors. The walls of the barn were 8 inches thick and made all of concrete. The curved roof was self supporting, with no braces in the loft except two stringers under the center of the loft. Mr. Ramseyer was not willing to pay the few dollars for the plans of the barn and figured out how to create the curved roof himself. Using three twelve foot twelve by two inch boards, he cut each board in a curve in order to make the 36 foot tall roof. A eight by two plate was laid on the top of the concrete wall and all the loft floor joists and rafters were attached to this and each other to make a very sturdy roof. (22 Apr 1916)
The cost of the barn was $800 and Mr. Ramseyer considered that he had saved at least $100 over building a hip or gambrel roof. He did think that if he had it to do over again, he would have used ten foot boards to make a 30 foot roof, which would not have been as steep and would still have made a large enough loft.
The help of his neighbors was returned with work in kind on their farms. Mr. Ramseyer did not continue farming, but moved to Normal in 1922. A real estate transaction in March of 1922 indicates that Ramseyer sold land near Hudson to Fred W Helleman for $24.600. (3 Mar 1922) His obituary indicated that he had worked at Williams Oil O Matic for 17 years after moving to Normal. (27 Dec 1939)