Old Round Barn

Don’t expect anymore than what’s in the name. It’s just a big round barn folks. The gentleman who manages the first floor is an interesting enough character to warrant a quick stop.

Route 66 is a pretty interesting piece of history, and with its history comes historic roadside attractions. The Round Barn is included in that mecca of road side attractions.
The bar itself was created in 1898 on a farm that was later transformed into the roadside attraction that it is today with the establishment of the railroad in the 1920s and the opening of Route 66 passing straight through the town. The Round Barn was also a community attraction where they would hold gatherings in the upstairs loft. Live music and dancing was quite frequent here in the small town of Arcadia.
When Route 66 became less frequented due to the Interstate system being created; the barn itself fell into a decline. In the late 1980s the roof collapsed completely due to lack of care. Soon there after a group of volunteers established funding to rebuild the beautiful barn and to fix up to its glory to how it used to be.
Today it is completely run by a nonprofit organization. If you visit, and desire to buy something — they only accept cash or check. They have the entire history put on display on its walls. It could take you quite a bit of time to get through it if you are trying to read every little detail.
Make sure when you visit to also check out the loft part. It is amazing on the architectural design that went into this truly round barn… supposedly the only real round barn in the entire US!

We have stopped here many times while making the drive on route 66. We even went to a celebration in one of our old hot rods and they had us park right up by the door for fun! Take the time to go upstairs and hopefully you will catch some square dancing going on. It was a hoot!

A great stop if you are in the area right on Route 66! Mr. Sam, a delightful historian, was on site while we were there a couple of years ago and we talked to him about a round barn that used to exist in central Illinois, and he asked us to send photos of it to add to their impressive collection of round barn history, which is available for you to view on the premises.