This old house barn

EMBARRASS- The restoration of the Seitaniemi housebarn, built over 110 years ago by Alex Seitaniemi, an immigrant from Finland, is nearly 90-percent complete.
And the work done this year has brought the old log structure back to life in a way few probably ever imagined.
Barn-red walls with bright white trim, adorning the new pine siding (installed last year) covering the tamarack log walls, shone brightly in the sun on a warm fall afternoon, as Sisu Heritage member Paul Knuti gave a tour of the progress made this year. Knuti has been involved with the restoration project for many years.
“Dairy barns are always painted red,” said Knuti, who has his own family farm not that far away, where he raises cattle.
While researching the history of the structure, Sisu Heritage found some colored photos from the 1940s showing the red exterior, and while they weren’t sure of the exact shade, the historical architects working on the project were confident that this red was a close match, he said.
There are still a few things to be completed this fall, Knuti said, including installing the wooden ramps into the three ground-level doors into the building, which stretches over 90 feet in length. The single structure holds a house, horse barn, hayloft, and cow barn. While the wooden ramp entrances don’t match the original wooden porch or stone steps, Knuti said they will provide safer access to the building and were approved as part of the restoration.
The building will also have metal gutters installed, also not original, but something that will help preserve the building well into the future. A new dormer will also be installed over the root cellar, which is under the house end.
The housebarn, located in Waasa Township and about three miles from central Embarrass, is the only remaining housebarn in the United States built by someone of Finnish ancestry.
The structure is an extremely rare and important cultural resource built by Alex Seitaniemi, who immigrated to the area in 1902 and purchased the land a few years later. Construction of the housebarn started in 1913 and was completed in 1922.
The building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1990 and, in 2010, Sisu Heritage started the long process of restoring it to something close to its original form. The first step was preparing a historic structure report, with assistance from the Minnesota Historic Preservation Board, which did a detailed inventory, down to the type of each log and board in the structure.
“That is how we know so much about the building,” said Knuti.
The housebarn was built in pieces, first they built the small two-story house, then the horse barn and hayloft, and finally added the cow barn. Construction started in 1907 and continued through 1913. The structure showcases four different types of log construction and finishing and jointing work. The cow barn, completed last, used round logs, while the rest were squared logs. Some architects who have worked on the building suspect the cow barn might have been constructed elsewhere and then moved to the site and attached to the existing housebarn structure, but no one is sure. The questions come from the different style of log work used in that part of the building, along with a slight difference in the cow barn’s width, which is a bit larger than the rest of the barn. Most of the logs used were tamarack, known for their durability. Knuti said the vast majority of the logs did not need any repair during the earlier part of the renovation, when damaged or rotten logs, joists, and roof rafters were replaced with tamarack, which is harder to find nowadays, but they were able to harvest some logs that were big enough from Knuti’s nearby farm.
No one is sure why Alex decided to build a housebarn. He came from the northern part of Finland, where such structures were not at all common.
“He just had a passion to build something very well done,” said Knuti. “This was a show-off place.”
The quality of the construction is probably why the log building survived, Knuti speculated. The logs were so tightly fitted together that hardly any caulking was needed. The barn’s stone foundation, set simply onto the ground, was also expertly built and required very few repairs.
The renovations have been funded mostly with grants from the Minnesota Historical Society and a special bonding appropriation from the state of Minnesota. Work has cost about $500,000 so far. The work includes restoration of the stone foundation, log replacement, reconstruction of the root cellar, rebuilding both hay loft ramps, and replacement of floor joists. A new manure room wall, new doors and windows, major roof work, and new siding on the west, south, and upper portion of the east wall have also been undertaken as part of the project.
Knuti estimates the remaining work needed will cost around $100,000, which includes repairing some floor and roof joists, which will be expensive, and some additional interior work on the barn portions.
Sisu Heritage will also need to figure out how to set up a maintenance plan and funding to keep the building. While the interior of the cow barn is being restored, they are not sure how much other interior work will be done, besides structural repairs, in the horse barn or house area. Knuti said they are aware that repairs will be needed for the hayloft ramp in the near future.
Cows on the farm
The Seitaniemi farm had 10-12 cows, more than other farms in Embarrass typically had. Milk was sold in Embarrass, though they are not sure how the milk was stored, especially in the winter, when the three mile trip to Embarrass was undertaken with a horse and wagon or sleigh.
The cow barn is one of the most interesting parts of the structure historically, Knuti said, and it was obviously an area of great interest for Knuti personally.
The barn has a water tank above the rafters, and metal tubing connected the tank to water bowls in each stall. But the most unique feature was a self-watering system. When the cow stuck its mouth into the bowl, it moved a metal plate that opened up a valve, filling the bowl with water.
“This wasn’t a common system,” Knuti said. “There is only one other I know of like this in the area.”
The barn also had a gutter system for handling the manure. With this many cows, removing manure, especially in the winter, could be a huge chore. Manure was then used to fertilize fields.
The work this year has rebuilt the cow stalls, using as much of the original wood as possible. But the big surprise was finding several of the original metal bowls, which have now been reinstalled, though they are not in working condition.
Knuti said they are not sure how they got the overhead tank filled with water before the farm got electricity in the 1950s. He said they probably used a pump with a gasoline engine.
There are still a lot of questions about the farm and how it operated, but what they do know is that the farm was successful.
Finnish farmers in Embarrass were very effective and efficient, Knuti said.
“Embarrass was the agricultural capital of St. Louis County,” he said.
Finns had to work from scratch to develop their fields, he said, from land that had been logged.
“They could survive on 80 acres,” he said. “They also tended to have large families.”
The survival rate of family farms in Embarrass during the Depression was very high.
The 80-acre farm, besides producing milk, grew potatoes and rye, along with hay to feed to the cows and horses. In the winter, they also logged the 80 acres of the farmstead. Alex eventually bought another 80 acres, down the road, that they also farmed and logged.
Embarrass, during this period of time, was renowned for its farming, specifically potatoes and rye.
Cooperative stores and dairies were also key to farming success, especially during hard times.
More history
In 1925, the family constructed a stick-built home near the housebarn, and then moved the family’s three children there. Eventually the farm became home to Alex’s two sons, Bill and Knut, neither of whom married. Alex and Knut would continue to live in the house end of the barn in the summer months, as they worked the farm. While Knut died in his 50s or 60s, Bill continued to live on the homestead into the 1990s.
After Bill’s passing in 2003, the housebarn and property was eventually sold to Carol and Larry Schaefer of Ely, who were interested in using the property for hunting. In 2009, they donated the housebarn, along with an easement for the land immediately surrounding the structure, to Sisu Heritage, which has been working to restore and maintain many of the unique and historic Finnish farmsteads and buildings in Embarrass.
Want a tour?
The housebarn property is not open to the public except during tours or specific community events. Sisu Heritage hosts tours of the Seitaniemi Housebarn along with other historic Finnish log homesteads and buildings. To schedule a tour, contact the Nelimark Gift Shop (open in summer months) or contact Sisu President Marlin Bjornrun at 218-410-9660 or marlin.bjornrud@gmail.com. Tours are by appointment only.
Sisu also hosts a free community picnic and concert at the housebarn each September.