Soncarty Barn

Located eight miles north of Potlatch, just off Highway 95, the Edward and Ida Soncarty Barn offers a well-preserved example of the Gothic arch roof style barn that came into style after 1915.  Round-roofed barns grew in popularity because they had less angles and cross braces, allowing more loose hay storage for a variety of farm animals.  The Soncarty barn duplicated the style of neighbor Durrell Nirk’s barn, and area residents believe Nirk originated the building pattern or purchased it, sharing the design with others.  Painted red and white, the Soncarty’s new barn was built on a rock foundation. 

The Soncarty Barn, courtesy of the National Register for Historic Places Inventory Nomination form, dated May 8, 2007.

The accompanying Soncarty farmstead, which includes a well maintained home and some outbuildings, accommodated the diversified style of farming prominent in north Latah County during the period from 1928 to 1955.  The area had many similar subsistence farmers, who worked off-farm and also raised both animals and crops to provide for struggling families settling the rolling hills of the Palouse.

As for the original barn owner, Edward Soncarty was born in 1885, grew up in Illinois, and later traveled to California, where he worked as a chef.  In 1909, he came to Latah County, where he labored as a farmhand, and later purchased the farmstead at a tax sale.  In 1916, he married Ida Bysegger, the 17-year-old daughter of a neighboring farmer.  After an elegant wedding, the Soncartys settled down to a simple life, with Edward working as a logger, thresher and auctioneer to supplement farm income.  As the family prospered, they added the barn in 1928.   Before the hayloft was filled with hay for the first time, neighborhood men gathered there to play basketball.  The attractive barn was used primarily to shelter cow-milking operations and provide space for draft horses; later Edward added a small sawmill operation in the hayloft.

The Soncarty Barn, courtesy of the National Register for Historic Places Inventory Nomination form, dated May 8, 2007.

The Edward and Ida Soncarty Barn was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the Latah County Historic Preservation Commission in 2008.

References:

Julin, Suzanne. United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form. Missoula, MT, May 8, 2007.