This Dutch barn is located on the Clark County homestead settled by Alexander and Mary Heisen in 1866. The barn, home, milk parlor, chicken coop, and outhouse sit on the remaining 4.5 acres of the original 240 acre homestead, which was gradually sold in parcels by the family over the years for additional income. Alexander Heisen cleared the land and settled the small farming community of Heisson, that was located less than a mile south of the East Fork of the Lewis River. Alexander and Mary's oldest son, Henry Heisen, built the farmhouse on the site in 1898.
Photos taken when the home was built show the barn in the background and it appears to have been there for some time. It is yet unknown if the barn was built by Alexander Heisen (the first generation) or Henry Heisen (the 2nd generation) The Dutch-style barn originally measured 50 x 50 feet and is made of hand hewn timbers on a stone foundation. Although primitive, the craftsmanship displayed in this section of the building is fine, including carefully hand squared timbers and mortise and tenon joints. A 27 foot addition was added to the east end of the barn around 1950 by Mike Heisen, grandson of Alexander. It is of different construction methods, made of round timbers with the bark still attached, roughly joined, and it has a concrete foundation. From the exterior, the two sections are not distinguishable and appear as one, sharing the same roofline and type of exterior siding.The barn's original shingle roof was replaced with a galvanized metal roof in the early 1970s by neighbor, Alan Schumacher. The barn was originally used primarily for hay storage and to shelter the dairy cattle and draft horses that were critical for the family's substance farming survival. The barn still contains the original wooden milking stanchions, later replaced by a "modern" (at the time!) milking parlor built just west of the barn in the 1950s. A wooden silo that once stood on the site is now gone.
The Henry Heisen House was placed on the Washington State and National Historic Registers in 1979 and the barn is mentioned briefly in the description. The property remained in the Heisen family for three generations. The two youngest children of Henry and Ida Heisen (Mike and Ladine Heisen) never married and continued to live in the home and operate a dairy on the property into their 80s. The property was then sold out of the family in the early 1990s. The barn is currently used mainly for the storage of tractors and other farming equipment that is used to maintain the vineyard now planted where the cows once
grazed.
- Listed in the Washington Heritage Barn Register
- The Heisen House and Barn are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Heisen, Henry, Farm
27904 NE 174th Avenue
Battle Ground, WA 98604
United States