A Landmark Filled With Memories

Ruth Swaner, local author and artist, shared some of her stories as an art education student at USU in the 1960s. She said it was a “wild and wonderful time,” though also marked by sad events like the assassination of President Kennedy. The Art Barn was a focal point for her college career. She remembered it being full of experiences and friends. “It was a fun place. . . I looked forward to it every day.” She had a lot of learning experiences there. “I found out along the way that I’d rather do art than teach art. . . I never did teach. I decided to get married, have a family, and just do art, and that’s what I’ve really enjoyed doing.”

Mrs. Swaner described the Art Barn in the 1960s. When she was a student she said everyone knew the Art Barn, and it was often a meeting place for students heading to the Hub (in the student center). She said, “The Art Barn is a landmark to me, and it stood out because it was a different shape than the rest of the buildings.” She also described what it was like inside. “There was lots of sunlight coming through all the windows, and the smell of the clay and sometimes the smell of the oils for oil painting.” Pottery was taught on the first floor of the barn, and on the second floor were sculpture and anatomy for artists, where they learned to draw skeletons and muscle systems. Life drawing was on the third floor. Other art classes were held on the third floor of Old Main. She remembered having to get to the second and third floor of the barn by climbing the fire escape stairs on the west side of the building.

One of her favorite professors was Larry Elsner, an award winning artist who taught pottery. She struggled to make anything on the pottery wheel, but she made a pot or vase on the pottery table that she still has to remind her of her days at the Art Barn.

Life drawing was a controversial class because it used naked models, which many of the students were not expecting. Mrs. Swaner described the shock of the class, “When the first person disrobed, you could hear a pin drop. . . I just about dropped my pencil.” Many of the students were very uncomfortable. Some LDS returned missionaries protested the class, which was required for their major, by going to the university administration and asking them to cancel it. They also complained to their church leaders, who quieted their concerns by stating that the human form was a beautiful creation and that learning to draw it could be a worthwhile part of their education. That controversy passed, but another led to the departure of the professor who bucked the clothed-model trend. Mrs. Swaner was surprised years later, however, when she was watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and he introduced the winner of a muscle man award, who turned out to be that very same former professor. Apparently he had made quite a career change.

Mrs. Swaner feels that the Art Barn should always be preserved on campus because of all the memories and experiences that took place there for herself and other students. She was afraid it might be torn down, and she said “This is even more exciting for me to know that they’re going to turn it into something really special . . . We need to preserve the past . . . Old buildings that are filled with memories should be preserved.” She believes that knowing the past can help us all be better people in the future.

Historic Barns and Historic Preservation

In the early days of USU, when it was Utah Agricultural College, barns were an important part of the landscape on campus, in Cache Valley, and throughout northern Utah. Though the Art Barn is the only remaining barn on USU’s campus, barns are still an important feature of Cache Valley’s historic landscape. These historic Cache Valley barns provide a link to the history of USU’s barns.

The original USU horse barn, which was built next to Old Main in 1893, was a large, square, stone building. Though that barn was removed to make room for more classrooms in 1919, a good example of this type of barn is the Logan Temple Barn, which was likely patterned after USU’s horse barn. The Logan Temple Barn, located less than a block east of the Logan LDS Temple, was built in 1897 to accommodate the horses of temple visitors. Like the original USU horse barn, automobiles made the Logan Temple Barn obsolete by 1919, but Thomas Budge purchased it as a garage for his hospital, which was once located across the street from the barn. Today the Logan Temple Barn is privately owned. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic American Buildings Survey.

When the original USU horse barn was torn down in 1919, a new horse barn (our Art Barn) was built near the vet science building. This barn was cutting-edge for its time, representing the spirit of agricultural innovation at Utah State and in Cache Valley. Its gambrel roof and Jackson Fork allowed hay to be stored conveniently in the loft, and its cement floor was easy to clean. Other historic Cache Valley barns incorporated some of these features too, though it is uncertain if any were directly influenced by the Art Barn.

Like many other historic structures in Cache Valley, the Art Barn’s functions changed over time. In the 1950s the animals and barns were moved off the main campus, except for the horse barn, which remained because of its solid foundation and became the Art Barn. In the 1970s, when the art department moved into its new building, the barn served as overflow office space and classrooms for several departments. Its conversion to a welcome center and museum comes at a time when USU has just opened a new Equine Education Center in Wellsville, a tribute to the continuing importance of horses at USU, and is constructing a new building for the College of Agriculture directly across the quad from Old Main and from where the original horse barn once stood.

This history of adaptive reuse, or rehabilitation, of the Art Barn is a good example of how historic buildings can be preserved and put to new uses. Reuse of historic buildings reduces the environmental impacts that are associated with new construction while preserving the history and heritage that are so important to any place’s identity. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Barn Again program provides information about preserving historic barns, and the Bear River Heritage Area’s “Historic Barns of Northern Utah,” is a good source for more information about historic Cache Valley barns. Both are available online.

Above: Photo of the Logan Temple Barn courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS, reproduction number HABS UTAH,3-LOG,2A- Below: USU archives photo from 1906 of the old horse barn, or Model Barn, near Old Main, with the other campus barns, and the future location of the Art Barn, in the background.