Mark your calendar now to get together with barn owners and enthusiasts to discuss saving Indiana's heritage barns. Make plans to join us for another great Forum and Annual Meeting in July!
The 2025 Indiana Barn Foundation Forum and Annual Meeting will be held on Saturday, July 12th from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Beck's Hybrids in Atlanta, Hamilton County, Indiana. The program will include words from Beck's Hybrids CEO, Sonny Beck and an introduction of IBF's new executive director, Christine Page. The featured speaker will be retired Ball State University historic preservation professor and IBF founding board member, Duncan Campbell. His talk, “Indiana Barns: Settlement, Imprint and Evolution,” will focus on the construction techniques of barns into the 20th century using photos taken during assessments of Indiana’s heritage barns. Beginning with timber framing, barn construction later evolved to truss and plank framing and embraced the technical and scientific movements. Attendees will be able to further understand the talk by viewing IBF’s newest of two scale barn models, which will be unveiled at the meeting.
Following lunch, attendees will be invited to gather onsite at Fieldgate Farm in Sheridan for a tour given by the owners. In 2020, the circa 1850 house and turn-of-the-century barn of the Baker-Johnson-Pickett Farm were saved from demolition for a road project through a partnership between Indiana Landmarks and the Indiana Department of Transportation. Learn about the documentation and reconstruction of the buildings at their new location, while visiting the Highland cows and other animals that call the boutique farm home. Learn more about the farm at these links: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2025/02/reconstructing-historic-hamilton-county-farmstead/ and https://www.fieldgatefarm.com/about
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. with continental breakfast. Lunch is included in the registration fee of $25 per person. Non-members of the Indiana Barn Foundation are welcome to attend. Note: Special dietary requests can not be guaranteed after July 7th. For more information, please email indianabarnfoundation@gmail.com. The morning portion of of the event will be at 6767 E 276th St., Atlanta, IN. Thank you to Beck's Hybrids and Fieldgate Farm for hosting the meeting and to Dull's Tree Farm, Peg & Pin LLC, and Mark Kurth and Shelby Moravec for their sponsorship of the meeting.