Dairy barn
Rows of windows, roof ventilators, a concrete floor.
How to know it
Usually a gambrel roof with ventilators along the ridge and far more windows than other barns. Inside: a concrete floor with gutters, metal stanchions, and often a separate milk house.[1][2][3]
Where it came from
Johnson County, Indiana, built dairy barns like these during the early 1900s dairy boom.[1] Stricter sanitation laws from about 1900 pushed farmers toward light, air and washable floors.[3]
The Flatland Farms plate for this eraPlate IX · First HarvestSong: “Sixteen in the Grain Truck”
Is there a barn like this in your family?
Barn of the Month opens January 1, 2027. Tell us about it now, free, and we will email you the day entries open.
Nominate a barn Record its storyWhere these facts come from
- Towne Post, Johnson County Rewind: Johnson County barns (2018)
- National Park Service, Preservation Brief 20: The Preservation of Historic Barns (Auer, 1989; copy hosted by Washington DAHP)
- University of Vermont Historic Preservation, Preston farm dairy barn
Facts checked October 2026 and written in our own words. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us through the Barn Letter form and we will fix it. The engraved plates are Flatland Farms artwork, not historic photographs.