An Appropriate Use for an Enduring Building

It is easy to forget that the Art Barn was once part of a complex of barns and corrals located where the Taggart Student Center and parking lot are today. Those other barns were removed during the 1950s and the animals moved to North Logan, but some people remember when they were a vital part of campus. Dr. Newel Daines, former mayor of Logan and an active participant in historic preservation in Cache Valley, shared with us some of his memories of the barn from his childhood during the 1930s. His earliest interactions with the campus barns occurred when his family took their cows to campus to be bred to the bull that was kept there to improve local herds. He still remembers his early impressions of the horse barn:

"I remember it was a big oval-top barn that had a Jackson fork that came out of one end that they would haul hay into the loft of the barn, and it was a beautiful building at that time . . . It had an attic and everything else was on the ground floor. There were stables in there for the horses to be separated."

His other interactions with the horse barn show that it was an important part of campus and of Cache Valley. His mother rode in some of the community-wide horse shows that were held on campus, and Dr. Daines remembers that among the "outstanding horses" in those shows were the college's horses, which were stabled in the horse barn across the street from the old stadium where the shows were held. He also shared how the barn was part of the childhood education of many Logan school children:

"I was a student at the Whittier School, which is on the corner of 3^rd North and . . . 4^th East [now the Whittier Community Center], and since it was the school we would go up there on trips to examine the barn and see what was going on at that time . . . We would walk up there and look at the barn and see what was going on in the barn and see the horses that were in that barn. It was an interesting thing for a nine or a ten year old to do."

Dr. Daines has enjoyed seeing the horse barn remain throughout the years, especially since he remembers it from its first function as a horse barn. He says, "It is a good example of the buildings that have endured for a long period of time . . . now that it will ultimately be a museum, it seems appropriate."


Above: This undated image from the USU archives shows the campus barns. The horse barn is at the right end of the barn complex, and cattle judging is taking place in roughly the current location of the University Inn and Conference Center. Below: This image shows a view of the barns in the 1940s if one was standing with their back to the horse barn. This area is now a parking lot.