Hamilton Round Barn

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The Hamilton Round Barn was built over a ten month period in 1911 to 1912 at a total cost of $1900. The unique and historic Hamilton Round Barn is now operated by the West Augusta Historical Society houses a museum that exhibits old-fashioned tools and farming equipment dating to the early 1900’s. The original owners of the Hamilton Round Barn were Amos and Effie Hamilton, and they used the barn for their farm animals, and also rented out some of the rooms to visitors.

Images

The back side of the barn

The first level.

The front of the barn

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The Hamilton Round Barn was built by Amos and Effie Hamilton in 1911, and it is one of two round barns still standing in West Virginia from the 1900s. The barn has a circular shape, and it is sixty-six feet in diameter and seventy- five feet high in the center. On the exterior the barn is painted white and has a slate roof. Inside the barn there are three levels for the different animals Amos owned.

Amos first decided to build this barn after seeing another round barn on his way home from Pittsburg, PA. The design of the barn showed different and new ways to feed and house animals. Up until the mid-1900s, Mary Hamilton rented out the rooms in the barn for people to live in. Now it has become a historic building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The Hamilton Round Barn was passed down through the Amos family, and was purchased by the West Augusta Historical Society in 1980. The West Augusta Historical Society closed the round barn for two years and made renovations to make sure it would stay standing for years to come. Now, the barn is used to hold concerts, meetings, and it is also a museum, which shows many different local historical artifacts.

Sources

1. "Welcome to Mannington, West Virginia." Welcome to Mannington, West Virginia. Accessed September 20, 2016. http://www.manningtonmainstreet.org/westaugusta.html. 2. “National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.” Accessed September 20, 2016. http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/marion/85001548.pdf.