National and State Registers of Historic Places
Persons Barn and Granary
2103 Highway 18 (Zeandale Road)
Manhattan (Riley County)
Listed in National Register
2009-01-22
Architect: unknown
Category: agricultural outbuilding; animal facility; storage
Thematic Nomination: Historic Agriculture Related Resources of Kansas
The Persons Farm is nestled in the Flint Hills of the Kansas River valley in southeast Riley County. Lifelong farmer Enoch Persons obtained the property in the late 1850s. He and his family farmed and improved the land for the next five generations. The property includes a grouping of related farm buildings that illustrates the evolution of the farmstead over nearly a half-century. The features include a gable-roof barn made of native limestone and board-and-batten siding that was likely built in the 1860s, a wood-frame granary, with multiple interior grain bins, a corral partially enclosed with six-foot tall limestone walls that date to 1939, and a 1919 clay tile silo with a concrete foundation. The property is nominated for its agricultural and architectural history.
