William Gallagher Barn, Lopez Island

This month’s featured barn, built ca. 1925-26 by William Gallanger (1868-1965) and his son Bill, is one of the few remaining on Lopez that is still used for agricultural purposes. The Gallangers originally built the structure as a dairy barn, for 59 cows, which was one of the largest operations in the islands. It is currently owned and used by Horse Drawn Farm.

The structure exhibits a mix of old and new architectural technology with a center-drive plan and a pre-fabricated ‘bent’ system combining round log posts with dimensional lumber beams, plates, girts, purlins, and rafters. Concrete floors and plinths were added as foundational support for the structure.

A (then) state-of-the-art milk house was appended to the southwest corner. It features concrete stem walls, floors, and foundations, as well as a white-washed, sanitary interior for the separation and storage of cream.

Also of note are the two blue Harvestore silos, the only known examples in the islands–which indicates the relative magnitude and important of the Gallanger’s farming operation. In 1945, the A. O. Smith Company developed the “Harvestore,” which featured fiberglass bonded on the inside to the metal container. The Harvestore was 20 feet in diameter and 61 feet high, painted a distinctive blue, and featured a system of unloading from the bottom of the silo. In addition to their better performance, however, they were more expensive: in the 1960s, for instance, a Harvestore cost $11,302, twice the $5,435 for a (more common) concrete stave silo.

The William Gallanger Barn was listed in the Washington Heritage Barn Register  in 2013. Horse Drawn Farm was the recipient of a Heritage Barn Grant in the 2013-2015 Biennium and is completing renovations to the barn.