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| Not on the barn tour, but it should be! Thanks to the barn tour, while out and about in Butler County, I started photographing every picturesque barn we passed! |
Butler County still remembers its rural, agricultural roots, and many of its old-time barns still dot the county. These magnificent structures bring us back to a simpler time. Each barn offers its own history, as individual to it as the patina that comes with their age.
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| Not on the barn tour, and sadly, falling into decrepitude, this lovely old barn is humongous, with four levels! I loved the weathered red color on its sides. |
Some of these barns are well on their way to — and a few are already well past — two centuries of use, and were used for cattle, dairy farming, chickens, and most are still in use.
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| The all-stone Drovers Inn Barn was owned by the Harmonist Society and is on the Barn Tour. Unique for its all-stone construction and four silos, one of which is actually built in the barn. |
You can spend an afternoon driving around Butler’s countryside, and you’ll definitely get to see cool things in addition to the lovely scenery, such as the lovely, old-time country church attached to a local graveyard, or farmland vistas that unfold as the road unscrolls before you. The fall is a perfect time to drive from barn to barn, enjoying the changing autumn foliage and lovely rolling farmland along the way!
I fell in love with the scenery as I traveled around trying to capture the amazing old barns. Despite that, I struggled with this post. Should I focus on the history of each barn, which is available at the Butler County Barn Tour website? Or should I treat the post more as a photo safari?
I decided on a combination. If you want the history, you can click here and get all the amazing details, including barn addresses and the benefit of a map of the barns on the tour. I included key points in the photo captions. The highlights of the barn tour are below.
Barn Tour Highlights
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| Back when this barn was built, in the 1800s, it housed cows. Now it’s home to alpacas. Worth going for the alpacas alone! |
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| The Harmonist Ziegler-Wise Barn was built in 1805 and is the county’s oldest and only surviving barn of three built by the communal Harmony Society of German Lutheran Separatists. |
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The Wimer barn was cool from several angles. Built in 1893, I really appreciated the
patina of worn layers of cream, red and grey paint.
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| Fairfield Farm barn, built in 1914, is possibly Butler County’s most beautiful barn. Note the distinctive trio of cupolas, which not only add decorative detail but are practical as well, by increasing the ventilation. |
For other day trip destinations in and around Butler County PA, go to the Blog’s Find a Great Place to Day Trip or click on the Butler County label below.
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