Town of Ira historian Dorothy Southard has compiled a historical look at the barns in her county. This is the last in a series on buildings that have become an iconic sight throughout this rural town.

With the reconstruction of Route 370 in 2006 between the villages of Cato and Meridian, the barns on the former Herbert Titus farm were demolished. This was done so the curve there could be lowered and made less dangerous. The barns were in such disrepair and were in danger of falling onto the busy roadway if a wind caught them just right.

A small horse barn for two horses is on the property owned by Lew and Sally Cutler. This barn on Route 176 at Emerick Road intersection is built in the New England post and beam style. This style goes with their New England saltbox-style home. A nice combination.

Beacon Hill Farm on Weller Road has another style of horse barn. The east end has box stalls for riding horses and the west end is an indoor riding arena. The siding and roof are metal. Another small barn on the farm is constructed of cement blocks and has a metal roof. Another type of storage building is the round grain storage bins. Several farms now have them. They range in size from several hundred bushels to several thousand bushels. Most farms that have the bins have dryers to dry the grain crops before they are stored. Crops stored include corn and soybeans. Sometimes small grains are stored in the small bins.

Here in the town of Ira are two highway garages, one owned by Cayuga County, the other by the town of Ira. They are on Ira Station Road, midway between Route 34 and the hamlet of Ira. Ira's highway garage was built in 1974, moving from the north side of the hamlet of Ira. All of Ira's four trucks, a loader, gradall, two tractor mowers and a repair shop are housed in this building. The county garage has room for trucks and a loader for use here in the north end of the county. There is a salt shed built in 2003 that is owned jointly by the county and town of Ira.

On Weller Road, one can find five long turkey shelters owned by Plainville Turkey farm. The Bitz family had purchased the former Robert Weller farm in the 1990s. The former main dairy barn is used for storage by the turkey farm. The rest of the sheds were demolished when construction of the shelters was started.

On Lysander Road is a new metal two-story building that has been constructed this fall to house a tractor trailer outfit for Philip Keller & Son business. There is a two-level office constructed in the front corner of the building. I expect that the “men's chat room” is on the first floor and the business office, run by the women, is on the second floor. Prior to this, the two offices were in the former dairy barn.

There are numerous metal barns around the town that serve as private storage facilities, heifer and cow barns, machinery storage, repair shops, welding shops, hay storage and more horse barns.

Back in early 1999, my husband said to me, “The town of Ira lost a number of barns over the winter. You better start taking photos of the barns and outbuildings still standing.” That April and May, I started traveling all the roads of Ira taking photos. Many roads were traveled several times. The result is a three-inch thick notebook full of these photos. They are grouped by north-south section map that shows where farms and properties are located.

Although the town has lost many of the old wooden barns and outbuildings over the years, just think of all of the new metal barns and structures we have now around the town. With the change of storage requirements and usage of buildings on farms, the evolution of the barn has meant out with the old and in with the new. Hopefully, the local farms will continue to keep their buildings in repair so future generations can enjoy them.

When you drive around the roads of Cayuga County, notice the barns that are left. They are vanishing every year.

Dorothy Southard is the town of Ira historian.