The historic barns at Iowa State have drawn the attention of members of the Iowa Barn Foundation, a group interested in saving old barns throughout the state.

Solon Ewing, professor of animal science, said he is concerned about the condition of some of Iowa State’s original barns, including the ISU Horse Barn and several dairy barns.

Ewing, member of the Iowa Barn Foundation, said he is primarily worried about the barn, which is located on the north side of campus.

“It’s very poorly maintained; in fact it’s rotting down,” he said. “They [the university] tried to nail plastic sheeting on the roof to prevent it from leaking. If you go around to the north side, the architecture is just gorgeous, but the doors are rotted and about ready to fall off.”

Ewing said Iowa State should put the barn’s basic repairs into the annual budget. He said he would also like to see the ISU barns be designated as historic sites, but he said the university would be responsible for seeking this approval.

Several original ISU barns have been restored over the years and have been converted into educational buildings, Ewing said. One such building, he said, is the Landscape Architecture Building.

There are three historic barns at the ISU dairy location south of campus on Mortensen Road, Ewing said. He said the earliest dairy barn, built in 1908, is used to store feed and hay and to house replacement heifers.

The Dairy Farm Pavilion, also at the Mortensen Road location, was built in the early 1920s. Ewing said the pavilion was recently restored by students and faculty at Iowa State and is now being used as a location for teaching livestock selection and management.

One of the barns built in 1937 is currently used as the milking facility, which is popular among school children wanting to learn about milking techniques, Ewing said.

Ewing said he has spoken with other foundation members about the possibility of converting the dairy barns into a “barn park,” to house a folk art center. He said the “barn park” is only a concept of foundation members since the university currently uses those barns.

Jacqueline Andre Schmeal, president of the Iowa Barn Foundation, said it is imperative that the historic barns of Iowa be saved.

“The Iowa Barn foundation was started in 1997 by a group of four or five people who were concerned that the barns were going and no one was rescuing them,” she said.

She said foundation members are working to save several fragile old barns throughout the state.

She said many of the historic barns have already been destroyed.

“The Iowa State barns are the barns of my childhood,” said Schmeal, whose father is the late Floyd Andre, former dean of the College of Agriculture. She said she grew up living in the Farm House, which is now a museum.

Schmeal said the Iowa Barn foundation has two basic goals. The first is to provide education about the importance of Iowa’s historic barns.

The second is to provide funding in the form of matching grants to individuals who have a historic barn and want to restore it.

“Every barn is the story of somebody who built it, somebody who played in it or put their life’s work in it,” she said, adding that barns represent much of Iowa’s culture.

The foundation has raised about $225,000 to be used for restoration grants, Schmeal said, and about $200,000 of this has been awarded.