Starke Round Barn
Starke Round Barn
Visitors to the Starke Round Barn are welcome to stop by and take a look but please contact owner Liz Rasser at 402-746-4165 or Discover Red Cloud Executive Director Jarrod McCartney at jmccartney@redcloudnebraska.com if you would like to take a tour. Visitors assume the inherent risk of visiting an agritourism site on a functioning farm.
The Starke Round Barn is a historic and engineering marvel. Nearly 125 years old, the barn is massive in size but is held together without nails or pegs of any kind. Measuring 130 feet in diameter and three stories in height, the structure is constructed with balloon framing and heavy timber supports. The Starke Brothers, Conrad, Ernest, William and Chris, who came to Nebraska from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, built the Starke Barn in 1902-1903. The top level of the structure was used for hay storage, the main level of the barn was for machinery storage, and grain bins were eventually added around the silo. The lower level was used for livestock -- the southern end for cows and the northern end for horses. The Starke Round Barn is the state's largest and one of the largest in the nation. This extraordinary barn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 1972.
