20071 Nowthen Blvd
Ramsey, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Sparre Barn

Statement of Significance:

The Sparre Round Barn, under construction from 1917 to 1924, is one of two Anoka County examples of the "Great Experiment" in barn design. This barn is additionally significant as the best-preserved dairy barn in the county. Architecturally, the barn represents one of Ernest Marsh's best preserved barn designs. Marsh was a locally prominent architect who was noted for his Neo-Classic and Georgian Revival residential architectural designs. The massive size and the dramatic design qualities of this well-preserved round barn represent a significant architectural element on rural Anoka County's landscape.
The round barn was constructed in the United States during the last half of the nineteenth century and later. Various designs for round barns were widely circulated as an advance in "scientific agriculture" in leading farm journals of the day. The advantages for constructing round barns, according to two "historic barn experts," were that ". . . the round barn enclosed the least amount of wall space, providing an economical space in the circle and the advantage of a clean and easy sweep on the threshing floor and in the cattle stalls."

From 1924 through the 1940s, this barn was used as a dairy barn. Anoka County agriculture was largely devoted to dairying from the late 1880s to the 1940s. The growth of suburban development throughout the county has resulted in the destruction of the majority of the county's dairy barns.