Old Silos Still Stand Tall

To many a passerby, a solitary silo standing tall in the middle of a flat farm field is nothing but an outdated monument waiting its turn to fall down. 

To others, though typically the mud booted among us who have tramped around a barnyard and poked curious heads inside the old bones of pioneer farms, a silo standing defiant against the elements is a relic to be cherished. Each is a memorial that harkens back to a living memory when, instead of the supermarket, milk came from a cow, and eggs came from a hen and pork chops came from the hog pen out back. It is a tomb where memories are safely sealed away until the next lonely silo pops up on the country horizon.

By their nature, silos were built to stow away goods, mostly grains, for future access when prices went high or feed supply ran low. Nowadays, there is a growing effort to protect the silos themselves in order to preserve the memories of the area’s pioneering past for future appreciation.

After a previous story in The Chronicle focused on state grant money available for historic barns, a number of readers wrote in wondering about the possibility of finding funding for the preservation of historic silos “before they all fall down.”

According to Michael Houser, architectural historian with the State Department of Historic Preservation, some old silos could indeed be eligible for grant-funded preservation work.

“That’s really the whole point of the grant program is to try to keep these agriculture resources standing for another hundred years,” explained Houser. “So we are doing a lot of roof work and foundation work to keep them straight, dry and still standing.”

Houser noted that in order to qualify for grant funding under the Heritage Barn preservation program, a structure must have some sort of current or historical use in agricultural pursuits.

“Silos in general, they’re probably built just as early as anything else,” added Houser. “You’ve got a lot of silos going up in the 1870s because it was not a new technology when people moved west. They would either build them or buy them out of catalogs.”

In Lewis County, there are plenty of silos still standing these days, although most have been phased out of use over the years due to structural issues or changes in farm operations. For instance, most silos were constructed to store large quantities of grain back when more farmers in Western Washington grew their own wheat, oats, corn and barley. These days, most grains are trucked into the area and those farmlands are largely dedicated to growing grass and grazing beef. 

The most common silos to find still standing tall are concrete stave silos, which are distinguishable by their gray color, their ascending metal retention rings around the outside and their typically round corrugated metal roof caps. However, other historic area farmsteads have been home to other more uniquely constructed silos, and some of those are still standing, even if they only house barn owls.

Some of the most easily visible of those unique historic silos are located on opposite ends of the county. On the north end of South Scheuber Road in Centralia, a red silo with white inlay at the top in the shape of a bow tie can be seen in a field between the road and Interstate 5 as Mt. Rainier looms on the horizon. From afar the silo appears to be constructed of brick, including the roof, but Houser believes it is more likely made of a glazed tile material. Interestingly, a twin silo is located on Simme Valley Lane off of Winlock-Vader Road, and Houser says he has seen a third silo with the same characteristics near Ethel off of Highway 12.

Situated only a couple hundred yards away from the red glazed tile silo in between Winlock and Vader is a moss-covered gray silo of similar dimensions but unknown stone construction material. Little information was known by the current owners of either of the Simme Valley silos, which was a common theme at the various Lewis County farmsteads visited for this story. 

One location that broke the mold for upkeep as well as institutional knowledge stored within its antiquated walls is hidden in plain sight within the historic residential district west of downtown Chehalis. There, in between old subdivided homesteads, sits a round wooden barn, including an ornate cupola on top, that was constructed by original Mint City banker, Noah B. Coffman, around 1900.

At the center of the four-story barn is an octagonal concrete silo that stretches from the foundation all the way to the hayloft. The barn is roughly 55 feet wide and 65 feet tall to the top of the cupola, and the silo is roughly ten feet across. On the second story of the barn, which would have been at the old street level, a white carriage house was built onto the face of the barn and used as a tack room as well as servants’ quarters. The current owner of the residence on St. Helens Avenue insists he is not interested in making the location a tourist destination, but the historic structure is listed on the Historic Barn Register. He noted that the silo was likely never used for grain and was instead used for tossing loose hay from the hayloft down to the show cattle and carriage horses housed on the ground floor.

Over at the State Historic Preservation Department, Houser agreed with the new owner’s interpretation of the old silo’s original function.

“A lot of those round barns, well there’s not a lot, there’s only maybe a few dozen in the whole state, but a lot of them were built with silos right in the middle and the circular design was to utilize that silo location as well as the efficiency of space and ease of operations,” noted Houser.

Although there is no doubt plenty of historic value to be found inside the weathered walls of area silos, Jennifer Mortensen, preservation services coordinator with the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, says that silos trying to stand out on their own could have a hard time in a competitive field of grant applications.

“It doesn’t quite count as a barn exactly, but it does still qualify for funding. Technically we consider a heritage barn any structure built for primarily agricultural purposes,” explained Mortensen. “Generally speaking, the best way to get funding for a building like that is not a barn itself, is to put a grant together for the silo and other farm outbuildings.”

Mortensen said that the program has received unique applications in the past for structures like milking parlors and calf barns, but those applications have yet to prove successful on their own accord

“As a strategic issue I’d say it would be better if the applicants could figure out two projects on one location in order to make it more efficient,” noted Mortensen. “I will say that even though silos are a little bit tricky, if they are rare that also kind of helps with the points. I would certainly recommend that the applicants note that information in there.”

The deadline for historic barn fund requests is May 17. Additional information on the heritage barn grant program can be found online at https://dahp.wa.gov/historic-registers/heritage-barn-register/heritage-barn-grants.

Any readers who have historic photos of area silos, or who know where a unique silo is still standing, are encouraged to share their bounty of knowledge with The Chronicle in person or by emailing jnailon@chronline.com.