Wolftown round barn earns spot on landmarks list

The Hoffman Round Barn in Wolftown has been accepted for listing in the Virginia Landmarks Register. The application to list the historic barn built by Haywood Montebello “Tiny” Dawson on the historic Hoffman Farm (now owned by Joyce Gentry and farmed by her son and daughter-in-law, Brad and Amy Gentry) was prepared and submitted by me in October 2008. The Board of the Virgina Department of Historic Resources voted its approval on Dec. 18, 2008.

The Hoffman Farm is part of the original 977-acre land grant given to John Rucker in 1727 and the old cemetery on the property contains graves from the American Revolutionary War era continuing to the present day.

The Hoffman Round Barn, on Route 230 east of Wolftown in Madison County, is a distinct and rare example of a 12-sided barn built during a period in American history when round barns were promoted by agricultural colleges as economical in construction, labor-saving for farmers, efficient as livestock quarters and as storage for grain and hay.

Round barns were promoted for a number of reasons:

• The circular form has a greater volume-to-surface ratio than the rectangular or square form. For any given size, therefore, a circular building will use fewer materials than other shapes, thus saving on material costs.

• Such barns also offer greater structural stability than rectangular barns. And because they can be built with self-supporting roofs, their interiors can remain free of structural supporting elements, thereby providing vast storage capabilities.

• The circular interior layout was also seen as more efficient, since the farmer could work in a continuous direction.

Constructed in 1913, this barn is one of three 12-sided barns built by Haywood Montebello Dawson in the upper Rapidan River watershed circa 1910-1920. Of the three barns only one other still stands, at Buffalo Hill, just west of the Madison Sheetz convenience store on Route 230.

The third, on South River in Greene County, was lost to fire several years ago. Dewey Lillard, a local historian whose grandfather built the barn, says it is likely the silo and barn are made of oak cut on the property and milled at a sawmill in Wolftown called “Pumpkin Center.”

The three barns are the only known examples of “round barns” in Madison and Greene counties in Virginia.  This evolved farmstead with more than 150 years of history continues to be an important agricultural property in Madison County.

(Guest columnist Beth Pastore, a Madison County resident, is the Madison County land conservation officer for the Piedmont Environmental Council. Contact her via e-mail at .)