W. E. Coates and son, John, built this cinder-block barn in 1949 on broad pastureland at the foot of Old Rag Mountain (Shenandoah National Park) in Madison County. The Coateses used the barn for weaning calves, storing hay, and raising cattle. The barn’s dominant feature is its lancet-profile, Gothic-style roof, supported on the interior through a tall, lightly framed system of wood construction that incorporates extra bracing for enhanced stability against heavy winds. The roof system, built by contractor Holden Henshaw and likely adapted from a 1935 article in American Builder magazine, “A WIND-Proof Gothic Barn,” by A. W. Holt, accommodates the windy conditions fostered by Old Rag. Coates added a concrete silo to the barn’s northwest end in 1952. A concrete watering trough, contemporaneous with the barn, stands in front. Coates built his barn during a period of expansion and improved practices in local cattle farming. It stands today as Madison County’s best-preserved representative of the once nationally popular Gothic barn style.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia