Every year I visit the Elkhart County 4-H Fair at least once. It is a tradition for me by now I guess you could say. I usually stop by the farmstead barn on the fairgrounds. The red bank barn was originally built in 1890 somewhere north of Elkhart in Elkhart County. In 1990 it was moved to the fairgrounds. A Dr. Pappodopolus owned the barn at the time it was donated to the fair. An Amish crew erected a new stone foundation for the barn and took it down and numbered the boards and erected the barn just like it was north of Elkhart. Inside the barn are items donated by individuals including old farming equipment, tools and more. When you walk inside this barn, you get a good feel for the history of farming locally and can better understand how difficult it must have been to try to make a living farming. Of course red is a very common color for barns. When we think of older barns, we likely think of red more than any other color. I wish I had more information about the farmstead barn, but all I could find is what was written on a small display inside the barn.
