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Oregon Historic Sites Database

address:37964 Balm Dr historic name:Cyrus, Henry and Mary, Barn
Lebanon vcty, Linn County current/other names:
assoc addresses:
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:11S 2W 12
resource type:Building height (stories):1.0 total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:0
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:c.1884 second date: date indiv listed:11/09/2015
primary orig use: Agric. Outbuilding orig use comments:
second orig use: Animal Facility
primary style: Utilitarian prim style comments:
secondary style: sec style comments:
primary siding: Vertical Board siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:Unknown
builder:Unknown
comments/notes:
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Barns of Linn County, Oregon, 1846-1946 MPD MPS 06/28/1999 1998
NR date listed: 11/09/2015
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The ca. 1884 Henry and Mary Cyrus Barn, later known as the Sam Schuler Barn, is a rectangular, end-opening, timber-frame barn located at 37964 Balm Drive, approximately one mile southeast of the unincorporated community of Crabtree in Linn County, Oregon. Surrounded by flat, open hayfields amid a landscape that appears little changed in the last century; the Cyrus Barn reflects prevailing trends in local barn-building during this era of agricultural and technological transformation. The character-defining features of the Cyrus Barn are exemplary of the property type, “Barns of the Late-Nineteenth Century” as identified in the Multiple Property Document (MPD), “Barns of Linn County, Oregon, 1846-1946.” Among these, the important historic features are timber-frame construction with pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery and sawn timbers of regular dimensions, as well as a common-rafter roof system. The cladding is also characteristic of this type, including circular-sawn vertical-board siding and skip sheathing fastened using machine-cut nails. A medium-pitched gable roof accommodates increased hay storage in a full-width loft, and a mechanical hayfork suspended from the ridge once permitted unloading from the wagon drive below. Divided into four aisles, the interior includes the original wood milking stanchions in the westernmost aisle of the barn, which are fastened using mortise-and-tenon joinery with wooden pegs rather than nails and may be the oldest wood stanchions in Linn County. Two rare unaltered wood stave silos were added to the barn’s north gable end in the 1930s. The barn and silos are counted as a single resource due to their physical attachment, and are the sole contributing resource within the nominated boundary. The silos notwithstanding, alterations to the barn are relatively minor and the original design, materials, workmanship, and historic feeling are substantially intact.
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Henry and Mary Cyrus Barn, also known as the Sam Schuler Barn, is proposed for nomination under the Multiple Property Document entitled, “Barns of Linn County, Oregon, 1846-1946” (MPD). Built ca. 1884, this barn meets the registration requirements for the property type, “Barns of the Late 19th Century,” under National Register Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an increasingly rare and highly representative example of the pattern of features common to barns built in Linn County during this period, including timber-frame construction, mortise-and-tenon-joinery, regular-dimension sawn timbers, circular-sawn vertical siding attached with square nails, and a large full-width hay loft. The original grain bins remain intact, and the mortised-and-tenoned wood stanchions may be the only remaining example of this important functional element from that era. The Henry and Mary Cyrus Barn also meets the registration requirements for the property type, “Silos,” under Criterion C in the area of Architecture due to the extreme rarity of its twin wood stave silos, which were common in Linn County during the early-twentieth century. Reflecting differing construction dates, the periods of significance for this property are both ca. 1884 and 1930-1939—the times during which these structures were built. Though minor modifications have been made outside of its historically significant time periods, the Henry and Mary Cyrus Barn maintains sufficient integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and feeling to clearly convey its historic identity.
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society: Other Respository:Linn County Genealogical Society
Bibliography:
Dole, Philip. “Farmhouses and Barns of the Willamette Valley.” In Space, Style and Structure: Building in Northwest America, vol. 1, edited by Thomas Vaughan and Virginia Guest Ferriday. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. 78-129, 209-240. Gallagher, Mary et al. Historic Context Statement: The Barns of Linn County, Oregon, 1845-1945. Albany, Oregon: Linn County Planning Department, 1997. Linn County Clerk, Index of Deeds, vol. 1, bk. 38, 181, vol. 8, 52, vol. 104, 220. “Linn County Old Timer Dies at Corvallis Home.” Albany Democrat Herald. July 31, 1946. Metsker, Charles F. Township 11 S., Range 2 W., Spicer, Tallman, Balm, Crabtree, Griggs, Brewster [map]. Portland: Chas. F. Metsker, 1930. Historic Map Works, Rare Historic Maps Collection. Accessed April and May 2014. Miles, John and Milligan, Richard R. Linn County, Oregon Pioneer Settlers: Oregon Territory Donation Land Claim Families to 1855, vols. 1, 2, 13. Albany, Oregon: Miles and Milligan, 1983. Oregon State Board of Health, Frank Schuler Certificate of Death (digital image), Linn Genealogical Society, accessed May 2014, . Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Oregon Historic Sites Database. . Accessed April and May 2014. Beckham, Stephen D. “Cyrus (Henry) Barn.” State of Oregon Inventory of Historic Buildings and Sites. Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1976. Gallagher and Nelson. “Cyrus Barn at 37964 Balm Dr.” Linn County Inventory of Historic Properties, Historic Barn Survey Form. Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1996. Gallagher and Dasch. “Della Fletcher Crabtree Barn at 38201 Balm Dr.” Linn County Inventory of Historic Properties, Historic Barn Survey Form. Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, 1996. Samuel Schuler obituary. Lebanon Express. December 16, 1998. Schuler, Sam. Interview by Paul Dykost on handwritten note. March 24, 1992. Scott, Leslie M. “History of the Narrow Gauge Railroad in the Willamette Valley.” The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, 20, no. 2 (1919): 141-58. Wikisource digital library. Accessed May 2014. Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Samuel Schuler (Oregon, 1955- 1956). Accessed May 2014. Ancestry.com. Thomas, J.J.. Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs, vol. 8. Albany, NY: Luther Tucker & Son, 1878. United States Federal Census, Linn and Marion Counties, Oregon, 1870-1940 (digital images), accessed April 2014, Ancestry.com. Williams, Edgar, et al. Historical Atlas Map of Marion and Linn Counties, Oregon. San Francisco: Edgar Williams & Co., 1878. From Historic Map Works, Rare Historic Maps Collection. Accessed April and May 2014.