The Heritage Barn Project
The Heritage Barn Project was started in 2004. Gwen embarked on a self-prescribed project to document on canvas in oil paint, historic barns throughout her home state of Indiana. Gwen had several motivations and goals. First, she felt the need and desire to hone her talents. Second, Gwen has a love of old barns stemming from her childhood. She was concerned about the demise of these historic barns and wanted to preserve these structures. She hoped her painting project would spotlight and help save these rural treasures.
The project took more than 12 years of travel and painting to complete 186 historic barn paintings. Why paint? Why not just photograph? Gwen believes our eyes see differently than a camera’s lens. Our eyes can see the delicate nuances of color within shadows and soft hues within reflected light. Our eyes see subtle variations in values.
Therefore, she chose to paint on location as much as possible. She often spent many hours and even days standing quietly observing a barn. Time to see and feel all the subtleties mentioned, but also the character of each barn to, in essence, capture the barn’s portrait.
Below are the 186 barns featured in Gwen’s published gallery book, “Heritage Barns of Indiana.” The paintings are searchable by county and each painting features a bit of history of the structure.
You can find “Heritage Barns of Indiana” online by clicking here or at various galleries and shops in Indiana. For more information about the book or Gwen’s work, please click here to contact Gwen.
All the barn paintings are for sale. Please contact Gwen to find out if the painting(s) you are interested in are sold or available.
Molter Family Barn
The barn in this painting was built to replace an older dairy barn that, unfortunately, burned in 1947 due to lightning.For over fifty-five years this new barn presided over the John and Ola Molter farm.
Connie and James Smith Barn
This barn is a quiet treasure. It has an unassuming presence that is easily overlooked. But stop for a minute. The original slate roof is mostly intact and it dates from the late 1800s. Efforts were made for eye appeal and not just function when building this barn.
Sandman-Garrison Barn
Longevity is on display in this barn, built in 1906 by Henry Sandman. On example is the slate roof that is still holding up after more than 100 years. Sandman went to extra effort to make his barn eye-pleasing and functional. Visual displays include gingerbread trim around each window.
Alyce Sheehan Barn
Historically, this barn was referred to as the Brownsville Barn. Many locals still refer to the barn as such to this day. It is a very unusual barn with impressive history.
Carmack Family Barn
Little is known about this early timber-frame dairy barn, but it was built from hand-hewn timbers-carefully pegged together. Later additions were added. Another interesting feature is that there is a hay hood on each end of the barn. Usually, there is just one entry door for hay into a hayloft.
Frank Cummings Farm Stilt Barn
This early 1900s hip-roofed barn is located in the Ohio River bottoms. On an Indiana map, the area where this barn is located is within a large curving bend of the Ohio River. The land mass resembles a thumb stretching south from Evansville.
Walter Hahn Farms Stilt Barn
This long stilt barn has an earthen and concrete approach to both ends of the central pass-through. Slatted corncribs occupied both sides of the pass-through. It was built around 1917 and used for the storage of ear corn and other crops.
Ratcliff Family Barn
Double-Dutch doors and sliding doors were placed on each end of this dairy barn. Twice a day the herd would enter, be milked and continue through. The barn is currently used for chickens and other farm animals, rather than for dairy.
White-Hazelwood Round Barn
This barn holds the honor of being the tallest round barn in the state, harm bans used 60 feet high, 60 feet in diameter and featured 60 windows when built in 1914 or 1916. History also notes that the barn was used as an aviation landmark for pilots flying from Indianapolis to Chicago.
Counterman Barn
This small dairy barn is placed upon the crest of a hill overlooking the gently rolling hills and farmland of Vigo County. It is an unusual barn featuring construction with large glazed tiles to the eaves of the gambrel roof.
M. Burke Family Barn
On a ridge just above Snake Creek sets the Burke family barn. It stands out above a low flood plain of farmland and is surrounded by a grove of trees. The barn was built from sawmill-cut, notched and pegged timbers. Some of them are quite hefty.
Blocher Family Barn
The older barn on this family burned prior to 1935. This two-story barn with an earthen ramp approach replaced it. The timbers used are not hand-hewn, but are pegged. As farming needs evolved, additions and alterations were made. The barn had an area whitewashed for dairy use and a separate area for horse stalls. Dairy and horses are not part of the farm today.
Gable Family Barn
This giant, two level shaped bath measures 100 feet x 100 feet x 100 feet, and was built in 1917. The side visible in the painting is the bottom of the U and is the front of the barn.
Alan J. Switzer Family Barn
In the 1870s this five-bay barn was built in the gently rolling and fertile land near Opossum Run and the Wabash River. The barn is positioned on a gentle slope, requiring a ramp for access to the large wagon doors. The barn is open to the hayloft, just inside the wagon doors, allowing access for the hayfork to reach the hay wagons once they entered the barn.
Swarner Family Barn
This barn complex holds within its boundaries a much older and smaller barn. Built in 1886, the original barn, which was quite small at 24 x 42 feet, was built with hand-hewn and sawmill-cut timbers held in place with wooden pegs.
McNelly-Rexing Twin Barns
In the area known as Stevenson’s Bottoms, Arch McNelly built these two incredible barns, circa 1940. Stevenson’s Bottoms is an area of fertile farmland that lies adjacent to the meandering Squaw Creek in western Warrick County. The farm was originally called the Gold Medal Dairy Farm.
Garriott-Elrod Log Barn
This very old double-crib log barn was built soon after William Garriott acquired the farm in 1834. Over the years, a barn was built around the double-crib barn. Now the original log barn is completely enclosed and protected by the larger barn.
Grubb-Zink Family Barn
After Jacob Grubb established this farm in the 1830s, the first barn became the centerpiece of daily operations. Eighty years later, Grubb's original barn was destroyed by fire, and in 1910, the current barn was built.
Beelor Hill Farm Barn
The age of this gable barn is unknown; however, the home on the farm was built in 1880. Hand-hewn and pegged timbers, mixed in with logs and milled timbers, suggest the barn was built around the 1880s. It has gone through upgrades and changes over the barn's many years as farming needs have evolved.
Huddleston Homestead Barn
The historical significance of this homestead did not escape the eye of Indiana Landmarks. The organization acquired this beautiful 1841 farm in 1966 with funds provided by Eli Lilly.
Click below to search for paintings from
the Heritage Barn Project by county.
Owen
Parke
Perry
Pike
Porter
Posey
Pulaski
Putnam
Randolph
Ripley
Rush
Scott
Shelby
Spencer
St. Joseph
Starke
Steuben
Sullivan
Switzerland
Tippecanoe
Tipton
Union
Vanderburgh
Vermillion
Vigo
Wabash
Warren
Warrick
Washington
Wayne
Wells
White
Whitley