Located near Nowthen Boulevard in the city of Nowthen, just off of Bass Lake, the barn used by Erick Sparre in the early twentieth century has a unique circular shape that allowed its owner to maximize storage space, lower construction costs, and increase efficiency. As of 2020, it is the best-preserved dairy barn in Anoka County.
Erick Sparre Jr. emigrated to the United States from Sweden with his parents in 1885. He hired local architect Ernest Marsh to design and construct a barn for his farm in 1917, amid a changing world of unstable politics and mechanization.
In 1922, while the barn was still under construction, Sparre hosted a well-attended Farmer-Labor Party meeting in the structure. Marsh completed the project two years later, and Sparre’s barn was fully operational. In subsequent years, Sparre won prizes for his farm’s produce, including corn, early Ohio potatoes, and three varieties of apples.
This barn is built on a tile basement, and its walls are sheathed in siding. A wooden silo, with a polygonal roof, is attached to the western facade. The barn’s two-story interior is composed of two circles on the first story: the outer circle contains space for cleaning stanchions, and the inner circle contains the stanchions themselves, as well as feeding space for cattle. The second story of the barn was used to store fodder and tools.
The benefits of the post-and-beam construction of a round barn include a greater volume-to-surface ratio that requires less construction material to enclose the same volume. Farmers could realize a 34–58 percent savings in cost of building material and more open space. They could also store feed in the center of the building, making it easier and more efficient to tend livestock. This scheme, however, had the potential to create toxic fumes from the silage.
Sparre used the barn between 1924 and the 1940s—the heyday of Anoka County’s dairy businesses. The building was added to the National Historic Register on January 10, 1980.
Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a National Register of Historical Places nomination form—a public-domain text.