(SEYMOUR) – The Jackson County Visitor Center is hosting a brainstorming session at 6 p.m. Monday at the Community Foundation of Jackson County, 107 Community Drive, Seymour.
The public is invited to attend to help come up with ideas on how to save the historical Smith-Hall Round Barn in Medora.
The barn is in dire need of repairs. The roof is collapsing, leaving the inside exposed to the weather.
Quotes to restore the barn have exceeded $400,000.
Jackson County has only two round barns remaining. The Smith-Hall Barn and the Stuckwish Barn in Vallonia. Only 37 remain in the state.
The Smith-Hill Barn is the largest round barn in Jackson County measuring 72 feet in diameter. It was built in 1910 by Louis Geyer for Howard M. Smith using green lumber sawed on site. The double-hip roofed barn, which had no central silo, before it collapsed stands 72 feet high and had a 216-foot circumference.
George Hall has owned that barn since 1964. It is located east of State Road 235 on County Road 150 South in Medora.
He has attempted to find help to fix the barn, but since it is privately owned, public funding is difficult to secure.
