Joseph F. Glidden House
Encyclopedia
The Joseph F. Glidden House is located in the United States
in the DeKalb County, Illinois
city of DeKalb
. It was the home to the famed inventor of barbed wire Joseph Glidden
. The barn, still located on the property near several commercial buildings, is said to be where Glidden perfected his improved version of barbed wire
which would eventually transform him into a successful entrepreneur. The Glidden House was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1973. The home was designed by another barbed wire patent holder in DeKalb, Jacob Haish.
The property contains the house and two outbuildings; the barn and the remains of an old windmill foundation. Constructed in 1861, the Glidden House adheres mostly to a French Colonial
style of architecture. The raised basement and full-length porch are two of the architectural elements found on the Glidden House that are consistently found in French Colonial homes
. The barn, a building of high historical significance, was not included as part of the National Register listing for the property until 2002, nearly 30 years after the original nomination was approved.
's once large DeKalb County farm. His holdings stretched along Lincoln Highway, both the north and south sides, from the Kishwaukee River in the east to present-day Annie Glidden Road on the west. The Glidden Farm went as far north as today's Lucinda Avenue. The farm's south border, near where Glidden would grant the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
right-of-way
through DeKalb in the early 1990s was near present-day Taylor Street.
The two-story Joseph F. Glidden House is constructed from locally fired brick, which is relatively soft. The softness of the brick has caused it to weather in a non-uniform fashion. The brick is said to have been fired at a small brickyard which once existed on the Kishwaukee River
in DeKalb, near the present-day Lincoln Highway bridge. The home stands on a stone foundation and was designed by local carpenter and eventual barbed wire competitor to Glidden, Jacob Haish. Construction was completed in 1861 and the home is a prominent example of Illinois French Colonial architecture.
The land where the Glidden House stands once held a log structure, which Glidden lived in when he first came to DeKalb at the beckoning of his cousin Russell Huntley
. The house was built in 1861 for barbed wire entrepreneur Joseph Farwell Glidden. As his personal residence, the house, and its accompanying barn, were closely associated with his invention, really just an improvement, of barbed wire. Glidden's improvement upon a wire board fence developed by Henry Rose was of vast importance in the settlement of the United States west of the Mississippi. It was after Glidden saw Rose exhibit his wire at a fair in 1873 that he was struck with the idea of attaching barbs to wire strand fencing. Glidden is said to have experimented with some of his ideas in the basement kitchen of the Glidden House. He noticed that whenever he tried to attach barb
s directly to strands of wire they slid along the length of the wire; Glidden realized he needed a way to crimp the barbs. He began tinkering around the home's kitchen. Glidden fit two hair pins to the shaft of a coffee mill, one centered and the other off-center. He found that by placing the wire between the pins and turning the crank a uniform barb resulted. How to crimp the barbs to the wire was solved, in the barn, by tying one end of the wire and another length of wire to a poplar tree on the grounds of the Glidden House and the other ends of the wires to a grindstone. The grindstone
was used to twist the wires together and prevent the barbs from slipping.
Day to day life at the Glidden House was mostly carried out in the home's basement which contained a full kitchen
, dining room
, and living room
. The upper floors were used for guests and for sleeping quarters. In 1877 Glidden's daughter, Elva, married William H. Bush in the homestead.
As of 2006 extensive restoration work had been completed on the home. The front porch
was repaired and restored and inside, the hardwood floors have been replaced and refinished. In addition, the front parlors have been repainted and restored.
style, though it contains some elements of Greek Revival architecture
. French Colonial architecture was more popular in the American South than it ever was in the northern tier of states.
The two-story brick structure is supported by a fieldstone
foundation and still features its original front porch. The porch spans the length of the building's front (south) facade, at a height of about 6 feet (1.8 m). The porch is supported by four wooden pillars, which rest on stone bases. The stairs leading to the front porch are supported by two similar wooden posts, which, like the house, are set into fieldstone bases. The first step on the stairs was originally a limestone block embedded in the ground. The porch roof is supported by six wooden, bracketed pillars. The pillar
s are simple, with the bracket
s coming from the boxed capitals
. At the rear of the porch wooden pilasters set at each end help to support the roof. Differentiating the home from the traditional French Colonial design is the porch roof, which is separate from the main roof.
The house stands mostly as it did in 1861 save a few alterations. The front porch was screened in at the time the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the screens have since been removed. At the rear of the house a small porch was enclosed. In 1909 or 1910 there were major subtractions and replacements. Removed were a cast-iron
widow's walk
along the roof ridge and a large gable
dormer
, decorated in the same manner as the cornice
decorating the roof trim. The present dormer replaced the larger one and is more of a low-shed type.
The roof itself is a low gable and dominated by single stack, straddle ridge chimney
s at its east and west ends. The boxed roof trim is a decorated cornice. The low-shed dormer is covered with green asphalt
. The old widow's walk, which a neighbor dubbed Glidden's "obscuratory", was balustraded and set just above the dormer.
The interior of the building is also similar to how it appeared when the house was constructed. However, a few changes have been made. In 1910 the two marble
fireplaces were replaced by brick. The flooring has been replaced as needed. The home's basement, once the main living area, has since been converted several times for other uses.
On the first floor of the home the rooms remain much the same as they were when Glidden lived in the house. An original multi-paneled wooden door remains at the entry from the porch to the central hall. The door, however, was altered, having glass panels installed to admit more light. The staircase is also original and its newel posts resemble those found in the Isaac and Harriet Ellwood House, another Haish designed home, and the Gurler House, whose architect is unknown though it was quite possibly Haish, both in DeKalb.
On the house's east side are three rooms, whose original presence is open to debate. The three rooms are interconnected, another common French colonial element. The room adjacent the porch was used as the Glidden's dining room and is where the large brick fireplace, which replaced the marble one in 1909, is located. The 1909 fireplace is of the American Craftsman
style. At the end of the hall, near the kitchen, there is a full bathroom
.
The western part of the first floor is dominated by a large formal living room
. The room has two entrances, one at the front of the hall, near the front door and the other at the back end of the hall. This was the room in which Elva Glidden married in the late 19th century. After 1941 the rear part of the living room, or "west" room, was walled off and a second kitchen added. When Jessie Glidden, the last Glidden to occupy the old homestead, moved in 1998, the west room was restored to its original size and the second kitchen removed.
The basement, and for part of the home's history, the main living area, is accessed via a staircase at the back of the first-floor hall. The steep stairs still show years of wear. One of the rooms off the main basement is the kitchen where Glidden is said to have experimented with the coffee grinder and his wife's hair pins, eventually leading to his brand of barbed wire.
The second-floor served as the main sleeping quarters. It consists of a few simple bedrooms, all historically without closets. The upstairs hall contains a door which once accessed a staircase to the widow's walk, what remains of the space has been used as a closet for over a century.
The property has two remaining outbuildings. The barn is where Glidden invented his famous improvement on barbed wire. Dubbed "The Winner," his barbed wire became the most popular version of the invention. Barbed wire is considered to be one of the most important factors in American progress and settlement.
The other outbuilding on the property along historic Lincoln Highway
are the remnants of a once dominating windmill
. Though only the foundation
remains, it gives a glimpse of how impressive the structure must have once been.
when the original nomination for the house was approved in 1973. However, in the late 1990s, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
revealed that the nomination included only the house. The Glidden Historical Center initiated the process of adding the barn
to the Register. Those moves were approved by the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council in 2002 and the barn officially became part of the National Register.
The barn was built sometime around 1871, possibly even before, and is constructed of the same soft brick that makes up the exterior of the home. Tradition in the Glidden family holds that the barn, like the house itself, was designed and built by prominent local carpenter Jacob Haish
. The famous barn, one of DeKalb County's oldest remaining, stands a full two-stories high, measuring around 50 feet (15 m) tall, with a width of 30 feet (9 m).
In February 2007 the Glidden Homestead and Historical Center kicked off a fundraising drive. The drive is aimed at raising US$
2 million to expand the Joseph F. Glidden House site to include museum space and a media center. Some of the funds will be used to help restore the barn and expand historical center museum space into the building.
. Glidden's barn took full advantage of the term vernacular
; the brick
was locally manufactured and the limestone locally quarried.
The east bay of the barn contains an animal stall in its northeast corner and a fully enclosed office in its opposite corner. The second-floor hayloft
is supported by the two massive transverse beams. The full-sized loft is accessible via an enclosed staircase against the south wall. The building's exterior roof is fully supported by the brick walls. The result is a loft which is an entirely open space save for some pole and beam construction supporting the laminated beams, which act as tie rods at the base of the roof. The barn roof is a common gable roof pitched at a 45 degree angle, it was originally covered with wooden shingle
s, those have been replaced over the years with asphalt
.
The barn features extensive window
s, somewhat unique outside of dairy barn
s, with a total of 14 eight-paned, double-hung windows dispersed over three sides of the rectangular structure, north, south and east. On the west side, facing the house, are seven smaller single-pane windows. The double-hung windows are topped with segmented arches constructed from a double row of bricks; the north and south main entrances are also topped with segmented brick arch
es, each of three rows of bricks.
. What is left, ten rows of stone above the ground, is completely invisible when the home is viewed by passers-by on Lincoln Highway. The windmill started to fall into disrepair around the 1930s or 40s. The original, specific use of the windmill is unknown.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the DeKalb County, Illinois
DeKalb County, Illinois
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 105,160, which is an increase of 18.2% from 88,969 in 2000. Its county seat is Sycamore. DeKalb County is part of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area.-History:DeKalb County...
city of DeKalb
DeKalb, Illinois
DeKalb is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 at the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated German war hero Johann De Kalb, who died during the American Revolutionary War....
. It was the home to the famed inventor of barbed wire Joseph Glidden
Joseph Glidden
Joseph Farwell Glidden was an American farmer who patented barbed wire, a product that forever altered the development of the American West.- Biography :...
. The barn, still located on the property near several commercial buildings, is said to be where Glidden perfected his improved version of barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
which would eventually transform him into a successful entrepreneur. The Glidden House was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1973. The home was designed by another barbed wire patent holder in DeKalb, Jacob Haish.
The property contains the house and two outbuildings; the barn and the remains of an old windmill foundation. Constructed in 1861, the Glidden House adheres mostly to a French Colonial
French Colonial
French Colonial a style of architecture used by the French during colonization. Many French colonies, especially those in South-East Asia, have previously been reluctant to promote their colonial architecture as an asset for tourism, however in recent times, the new-generation of local authorities...
style of architecture. The raised basement and full-length porch are two of the architectural elements found on the Glidden House that are consistently found in French Colonial homes
Colonial house
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English , French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, German Colonial and Georgian Colonial...
. The barn, a building of high historical significance, was not included as part of the National Register listing for the property until 2002, nearly 30 years after the original nomination was approved.
House
The land that the Glidden House stands on is what remains of Joseph GliddenJoseph Glidden
Joseph Farwell Glidden was an American farmer who patented barbed wire, a product that forever altered the development of the American West.- Biography :...
's once large DeKalb County farm. His holdings stretched along Lincoln Highway, both the north and south sides, from the Kishwaukee River in the east to present-day Annie Glidden Road on the west. The Glidden Farm went as far north as today's Lucinda Avenue. The farm's south border, near where Glidden would grant the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was a railroad running west from Chicago to Clinton, Iowa and Freeport, Illinois, never reaching Galena, Illinois...
right-of-way
Right-of-way (railroad)
A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...
through DeKalb in the early 1990s was near present-day Taylor Street.
The two-story Joseph F. Glidden House is constructed from locally fired brick, which is relatively soft. The softness of the brick has caused it to weather in a non-uniform fashion. The brick is said to have been fired at a small brickyard which once existed on the Kishwaukee River
Kishwaukee River
The Kishwaukee River, sometimes locally known as simply "The Kish", is a river in the U.S. state of Illinois. "The Kish" is famous for its high number of bridges that cross within its 100-year floodplain.-Location:...
in DeKalb, near the present-day Lincoln Highway bridge. The home stands on a stone foundation and was designed by local carpenter and eventual barbed wire competitor to Glidden, Jacob Haish. Construction was completed in 1861 and the home is a prominent example of Illinois French Colonial architecture.
History
Russell Huntley
Russell Huntley, along with his brother Lewis Huntley, founded the Illinois city of DeKalb. The pair owned most of the land that would become DeKalb. County surveyor Daniel W. Lamb platted two sections of DeKalb township as a new village in November 1853, a village originally known as Huntley's Grove...
. The house was built in 1861 for barbed wire entrepreneur Joseph Farwell Glidden. As his personal residence, the house, and its accompanying barn, were closely associated with his invention, really just an improvement, of barbed wire. Glidden's improvement upon a wire board fence developed by Henry Rose was of vast importance in the settlement of the United States west of the Mississippi. It was after Glidden saw Rose exhibit his wire at a fair in 1873 that he was struck with the idea of attaching barbs to wire strand fencing. Glidden is said to have experimented with some of his ideas in the basement kitchen of the Glidden House. He noticed that whenever he tried to attach barb
Barb
Barb may refer to:* A backward-facing point on a fish hook or similar implement, rendering extraction from the victim's flesh more difficult* Wind barbs for each station on a map of reported weather conditions...
s directly to strands of wire they slid along the length of the wire; Glidden realized he needed a way to crimp the barbs. He began tinkering around the home's kitchen. Glidden fit two hair pins to the shaft of a coffee mill, one centered and the other off-center. He found that by placing the wire between the pins and turning the crank a uniform barb resulted. How to crimp the barbs to the wire was solved, in the barn, by tying one end of the wire and another length of wire to a poplar tree on the grounds of the Glidden House and the other ends of the wires to a grindstone. The grindstone
Grindstone
Grindstone may refer to:*Grindstone , a tool used for sharpening*Grindstone, a type of millstone used to grind grains such as wheat*Grindstone , 1996 Kentucky Derby winner and sire of the racehorse Birdstone...
was used to twist the wires together and prevent the barbs from slipping.
Day to day life at the Glidden House was mostly carried out in the home's basement which contained a full kitchen
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
, dining room
Dining room
A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
, and living room
Living room
A living room, also known as sitting room, lounge room or lounge , is a room for entertaining adult guests, reading, or other activities...
. The upper floors were used for guests and for sleeping quarters. In 1877 Glidden's daughter, Elva, married William H. Bush in the homestead.
As of 2006 extensive restoration work had been completed on the home. The front porch
Porch
A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...
was repaired and restored and inside, the hardwood floors have been replaced and refinished. In addition, the front parlors have been repainted and restored.
Architecture
The home was mostly designed in a French ColonialFrench Colonial
French Colonial a style of architecture used by the French during colonization. Many French colonies, especially those in South-East Asia, have previously been reluctant to promote their colonial architecture as an asset for tourism, however in recent times, the new-generation of local authorities...
style, though it contains some elements of Greek Revival architecture
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
. French Colonial architecture was more popular in the American South than it ever was in the northern tier of states.
Exterior
Fieldstone
Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...
foundation and still features its original front porch. The porch spans the length of the building's front (south) facade, at a height of about 6 feet (1.8 m). The porch is supported by four wooden pillars, which rest on stone bases. The stairs leading to the front porch are supported by two similar wooden posts, which, like the house, are set into fieldstone bases. The first step on the stairs was originally a limestone block embedded in the ground. The porch roof is supported by six wooden, bracketed pillars. The pillar
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s are simple, with the bracket
Bracket
Brackets are tall punctuation marks used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text. In the United States, "bracket" usually refers specifically to the "square" or "box" type.-List of types:...
s coming from the boxed capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
. At the rear of the porch wooden pilasters set at each end help to support the roof. Differentiating the home from the traditional French Colonial design is the porch roof, which is separate from the main roof.
The house stands mostly as it did in 1861 save a few alterations. The front porch was screened in at the time the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the screens have since been removed. At the rear of the house a small porch was enclosed. In 1909 or 1910 there were major subtractions and replacements. Removed were a cast-iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
widow's walk
Widow's walk
A widow's walk also known as a "widow's watch" is a railed rooftop platform often with a small enclosed cupola frequently found on 19th century North American houses. A popular romantic myth holds that the platform was used to observe vessels at sea...
along the roof ridge and a large gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
dormer
Dormer
A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...
, decorated in the same manner as the cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
decorating the roof trim. The present dormer replaced the larger one and is more of a low-shed type.
The roof itself is a low gable and dominated by single stack, straddle ridge chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
s at its east and west ends. The boxed roof trim is a decorated cornice. The low-shed dormer is covered with green asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
. The old widow's walk, which a neighbor dubbed Glidden's "obscuratory", was balustraded and set just above the dormer.
Interior
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
fireplaces were replaced by brick. The flooring has been replaced as needed. The home's basement, once the main living area, has since been converted several times for other uses.
On the first floor of the home the rooms remain much the same as they were when Glidden lived in the house. An original multi-paneled wooden door remains at the entry from the porch to the central hall. The door, however, was altered, having glass panels installed to admit more light. The staircase is also original and its newel posts resemble those found in the Isaac and Harriet Ellwood House, another Haish designed home, and the Gurler House, whose architect is unknown though it was quite possibly Haish, both in DeKalb.
On the house's east side are three rooms, whose original presence is open to debate. The three rooms are interconnected, another common French colonial element. The room adjacent the porch was used as the Glidden's dining room and is where the large brick fireplace, which replaced the marble one in 1909, is located. The 1909 fireplace is of the American Craftsman
American Craftsman
The American Craftsman Style, or the American Arts and Crafts Movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art...
style. At the end of the hall, near the kitchen, there is a full bathroom
Bathroom
A bathroom is a room for bathing in containing a bathtub and/or a shower and optionally a toilet, a sink/hand basin/wash basin and possibly also a bidet....
.
The western part of the first floor is dominated by a large formal living room
Living room
A living room, also known as sitting room, lounge room or lounge , is a room for entertaining adult guests, reading, or other activities...
. The room has two entrances, one at the front of the hall, near the front door and the other at the back end of the hall. This was the room in which Elva Glidden married in the late 19th century. After 1941 the rear part of the living room, or "west" room, was walled off and a second kitchen added. When Jessie Glidden, the last Glidden to occupy the old homestead, moved in 1998, the west room was restored to its original size and the second kitchen removed.
The basement, and for part of the home's history, the main living area, is accessed via a staircase at the back of the first-floor hall. The steep stairs still show years of wear. One of the rooms off the main basement is the kitchen where Glidden is said to have experimented with the coffee grinder and his wife's hair pins, eventually leading to his brand of barbed wire.
The second-floor served as the main sleeping quarters. It consists of a few simple bedrooms, all historically without closets. The upstairs hall contains a door which once accessed a staircase to the widow's walk, what remains of the space has been used as a closet for over a century.
Outbuildings
The other outbuilding on the property along historic Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
are the remnants of a once dominating windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
. Though only the foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
remains, it gives a glimpse of how impressive the structure must have once been.
Barn
The Glidden Barn, located to the rear and east of the home, was thought to have been added to the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
when the original nomination for the house was approved in 1973. However, in the late 1990s, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois. It is tasked with the duty of maintaining most State-owned historic sites within Illinois, and maximizing their educational and recreational value to visitors....
revealed that the nomination included only the house. The Glidden Historical Center initiated the process of adding the barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
to the Register. Those moves were approved by the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council in 2002 and the barn officially became part of the National Register.
The barn was built sometime around 1871, possibly even before, and is constructed of the same soft brick that makes up the exterior of the home. Tradition in the Glidden family holds that the barn, like the house itself, was designed and built by prominent local carpenter Jacob Haish
Jacob Haish
Jacob Haish was one of the first inventors of barbed wire. His type of barbed wire was in direct competition with the other barbed wire manufacturers in DeKalb, Illinois...
. The famous barn, one of DeKalb County's oldest remaining, stands a full two-stories high, measuring around 50 feet (15 m) tall, with a width of 30 feet (9 m).
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
2 million to expand the Joseph F. Glidden House site to include museum space and a media center. Some of the funds will be used to help restore the barn and expand historical center museum space into the building.
Architecture
The Glidden barn is of pole and beam construction. The second-floor interior is dominated by two large transverse wooden beams. It is of the three-bay, English tradition, the west bay containing a space for a stairwell leading to a hayloft and seven stalls. It is constructed of red brick and stands on a foundation of limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. Glidden's barn took full advantage of the term vernacular
Vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...
; the brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
was locally manufactured and the limestone locally quarried.
The east bay of the barn contains an animal stall in its northeast corner and a fully enclosed office in its opposite corner. The second-floor hayloft
Hayloft
A hayloft is a space above a barn, stable or cow-shed, traditionally used for storage of hay or other fodder for the animals below. Haylofts were used mainly before the widespread use of hay bales, which allow simpler handling of bulk hay...
is supported by the two massive transverse beams. The full-sized loft is accessible via an enclosed staircase against the south wall. The building's exterior roof is fully supported by the brick walls. The result is a loft which is an entirely open space save for some pole and beam construction supporting the laminated beams, which act as tie rods at the base of the roof. The barn roof is a common gable roof pitched at a 45 degree angle, it was originally covered with wooden shingle
Wood shingle
Wood shingles are roof shingles made of cut wood, used for roofing material. Such roofing material made from split wood is referred to as "shakes"....
s, those have been replaced over the years with asphalt
Asphalt shingle
An asphalt shingle is a type of roof shingle. They are one of the most widely used roofing covers because they are relatively inexpensive and fairly simple to install.-Types:...
.
The barn features extensive window
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
s, somewhat unique outside of dairy barn
Dairy Barn
Dairy Barn is a chain of regional convenience stores located in Long Island, New York, with headquarters in East Northport.The stores are distinguished by their drive-through feature and their red barn appearance with little red silo....
s, with a total of 14 eight-paned, double-hung windows dispersed over three sides of the rectangular structure, north, south and east. On the west side, facing the house, are seven smaller single-pane windows. The double-hung windows are topped with segmented arches constructed from a double row of bricks; the north and south main entrances are also topped with segmented brick arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
es, each of three rows of bricks.
Windmill building
Only the foundation remains of the property's windmillWindmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
. What is left, ten rows of stone above the ground, is completely invisible when the home is viewed by passers-by on Lincoln Highway. The windmill started to fall into disrepair around the 1930s or 40s. The original, specific use of the windmill is unknown.
See also
- Barbed wireBarbed wireBarbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
- Joseph GliddenJoseph GliddenJoseph Farwell Glidden was an American farmer who patented barbed wire, a product that forever altered the development of the American West.- Biography :...
- Isaac Ellwood
- List of Registered Historic Places in Illinois