Ken Caryl Ranch's Historic Barn

The suburban community I live in, which is located in the foothills of Colorado west of Denver, was once a cattle ranch with its first owner, John C. Schaffer, purchasing the land in 1914.  In 1921 he hired Littleton builder William F. Sorensen to build a barn to house his purebred, award-winning, Hereford cattle.  The barn survives and was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Information from the History Colorado website:

"The barn is an excellent example of the gambrel-roof variant of the Transverse Frame Barn type as executed in the western United States. Character-defining features include the barn’s rectangular plan; gambrel roof with cupola ridge ventilators; second-story hayloft; hay hood and hayloft doors at the gable end; symmetrical interior organization with two interior aisles flanked by stalls running the length of the barn; and large sliding barn doors on the front and rear walls at the ends of the aisles. The unusual choice to use structural clay tile as a wall material adds to the barn’s significance."

You can read more about the barn by clicking on the photo above to enlarge the photo.

You can also see an interesting YouTube video about John C. Shaffer and his beautiful ranch on this link.

Our community's historic society had an open house this past fall to allow visitors to tour the barn and learn its history.  It now houses horses and is part of the Ken Caryl Ranch Equestrian and Training Center, which also contains two fully groomed outdoor arenas and a large indoor arena.

The enormous hayloft construction in the barn was amazing to view!

It has strong construction that has withstood much weather and time.

Our community has over 4,800 acres of native Colorado open space and many miles of trails that Ken-Caryl Ranch resident hikers, bicycle riders, and horse riders can access.  

It really is a wonderful place to live! 

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