Joyce Estate, Barn, Chippewa National Forest Road 2144, 3 miles north of County Road 335, Grand Rapids, Itasca County, MN

Significance: According to the "Grand Rapids Herald Review" of 14 March 1917, the original plan for the Joyce Estate included a "farmhouse" and "barn." An early photograph of the farmstead shows a log-frame farmhouse, with a log-frame, barn-like structure several yards to the north. This structure apparently was removed about 1925 to make way for the present Barn, which occupies the same site. Although the Barn's exact construction date has not been determined, its wood-frame construction with drop siding is similar to that of other buildings erected at the estate during the mid-1920s, such as the Moore Lake Cabin. When the Barn was inventoried as part of David Gage Joyce's probate file in 1938, it had already passed from its original purpose of housing animals into a garage containing "miscellaneous tools and supplies"; "1 International Truck, 1936, Model"; and "1 1/2 ton truck with wood rack." ... The gable roof of this tall, one-story structure is oriented on a north-south axis. The wood drop-sided walls, painted green, are supported by a cast concrete base which is dug into a hill on the west side. Trim is painted white. Barn doors are prominent on the east side. A wood frame, which possibly once supported an outdoor workbench, is attached to the eastern end of the south wall.
Survey number: HABS MN-146-AF