About That Octagonal Barn in Spring Grove-- Part 3: Save That Old Barn

One wall of the barn is open, but the roof, reinforced in 1986, looks solid.  There is also a beautiful 1957 rainbow truss barn on the property.  Destroyed by fire January 31, 1957, local farmers gathered and raised the current barn in two months.

The Kattners will continue to farm the property through this year.  Pease expects it will take about a year before work begns on the residential lots and at that time the barn will come down unless someone wishes to move it.

He is willing to give it away in order to preserve the octagonal barn.

"I'd love nothing better than to drive five miles away and say, 'Hey, they reconstructed the barn over here'," Pease said.  "We would, at a minimum, sell the timbers so that they would end up in someone's recreation room."

Let's hope the barn is saved and moved.  Perhaps to Horse Fair Park or the Spring Grove Fish Hatchery.

I've talked to local farmers who believe the barn's roof is in way too bad of a shape to save.

--CootBarn

About That Octagonal Barn in Spring Grove-- Part 2

"We want to take the 28 acres south of Main Street where the barn and farm house are located and subdivide it into four 5-acre home sites,"  Pease said.  "None of those buildings there [now] would really be in tune with me leaving one building where homes would go.  I paid too much for the property."

Pease would like to annex the property to the village of Spring Grove, although village Building and Zoning Officer Bob Walczak confirmed that no paperwork has been submitted to date for the property.

Gene Kattner said his family has lived on the property at 801 Main Street since 1921, originally part of a 230-acre farm that focused on raising corn, dairy cows and some beef cattle.  Fifteen years ago, the family sold 115 acres along the Nippersink Creek to the McHenry County Conservation District.

The 1876 octagon barn, which once housed horses on its lower level, purportedly has beams repurposed from Bliven's Mill.  Spring Grove used to be known as Bliven's Mill.

--Cooter

About the Octagonal Barn in Spring Grove That Is Endangered at the Former Fred Hatch Farm

 From the October 1, 2022, Northwest Herald (McHenry County, Illinois) "Only you can ensure local history will be 'barn' again" by Kurt Begalka.

The exterior of the 1876 octagonal horse barn in Spring Grove, Illinois, is not much to look at (despite being octagonal).  However, go inside and look up.  Well, that's a whole different story.  That ceiling appears almost cathedral-like.  

And, it might well be the only remaining octagonal barn in McHenry County.

Jack Pease, president of McHenry-based Super Aggregates Inc., recently bought the remainder of the Fred Hatch Farm (site of the now-demolished first silo in the United States that was designed by Fred Hatch).  This farm was most recently owned by the Kattner family.

I knew one of the Kattners, Ed.

Pease said he intends to mine the estimated 100 acres on the north side of Main Street and develop the current Kattner farmstead to the south (where the barn is located).  That means tear it down, subdivide it into lots.

This land is on Spring Grove's Main Street a short distance east of Wilmot Road.

--Cooter