Mission Statement
The Illinois Barn Alliance promotes and facilitates the identification, protection and preservation of barns and other rural historic resources throughout the state of Illinois.
Did you know?
- Over 81% of Illinois land is agricultural.
- According to the USDA there are at least 24,000 barns that are over 50 years old in Illinois.
- Illinois barns were built by carpenters from many different places—we are a crossroads for American barn types.
- Surveys of barns (& other rural structures) have been done in
- Kane County
- Lake County
- McHenry County
- McLean County
- Sangamon County
- Will County
- Several counties have annual barn tours, including
- Greene County
- McLean County
- Piatt County
Want to Help?
We are looking to expand our Board to include more members from rural counties. If you are interested in barns and rural heritage and would like to join us, please let us know!
Workshop Report
The Illinois Barn Alliance held its seventh workshop–Barn Preservation in an Urban World–on October 1st in Kane County. The day started at Waubonsee Community College with excellent presentations by Julia Thavong, Kane County Preservation Planner and David Bauer from Garfield Farm. Lunch at the fascinating Garfield Farm was followed by a tour of the county. We followed some rural roads and viewed many re-used barns from the bus. We also toured the barns at the Settlers Hill Golf Course (once the Kane County Poor Farm) and the enormous barn at Mooseheart that used to house their large dairy operation. It was an interesting day to consider new uses that can be found for barns when suburbia encroaches.
