The Canary Farm Barn is an historic bank barn built in 1918. It is the largest and the oldest barn remaining in Littleton. The barn is located on property south of Mineral Ave. and west of South Santa Fe Drive. A bank barn is a distinctive style of barn with dual level access – access is provided to the main level on one side and the surrounding earth is banked up against the side of the barn allowing direct access to the upper level on the other side. Barns of this age and design style have grown increasingly rare, particularly in areas near urban centers. This historic barn is a very good example of a bank barn and one of the last in the area.
Earliest Settlement of this property
Surprisingly enough, the settlement history of this property started with the War of 1812! Charlotte Pherdom, widow of Sargeant William Pherdom, a soldier who served in the New York Militia during the War of 1812, received a 160-acre Military Warrant for this land in Colorado. She held the warrant over 50 years and then assigned it to John W. Clark who redeemed it in May 1866. Clark quickly sold some of the land to David and Eliza Linhart who lived in Pennsylvania. David Linhart had come to Colorado three times before coming back here with his wife, Eliza. While in Colorado, he hauled logs down from the mountains for home construction in Denver. He also became skilled in moving houses using horses to pull the buildings from one site to another.
The Linhart’s traveled from Pennsylvania to Denver in a covered wagon around 1867 following portions of the Oregon Trail through Nebraska. They turned off the trail at Julesburg and headed to Denver. They established the Linhart Ranch on the property they bought from Clark and raised their family of 6 children – 2 daughters, Nellie and Katherine and 4 sons, Thomas, Ellis, Walter and William. In 1876, the family moved into a house closer to Littleton so that the children could attend school. The ranch stayed in their family for about 50 years. Eliza was active in bringing irrigation ditches to a significant portion of the land near the ranch and areas extending south and east.
Construction of the Barn
The Linhart Ranch was bought by wealthy oilman J. D. Canary for $60,000 in 1918. He had made his fortunes from oil wells in Oklahoma and Texas. He established a 1500-acre Hereford ranch in Saratoga, Wyoming and built a barn on that ranch in 1914 specifically for his Hereford cattle. His family had been well established in raising Hereford cattle with a 2000-acre cattle ranch in Caney, Kansas and adjacent lands in Oklahoma. Canary renamed the Linhart Ranch the Wildacre Ranch and raised award-winning Hereford cattle there. He built this barn for his Herefords following the same style of the barn he built on his ranch in Saratoga, Wyoming. The barn is a unique barn style for this region. It is known as a “bank barn” because the barn is built into a bank of land providing dual-level access. This made for easier operations as the cattle could walk directly into the lower level of the barn and the rancher could drive tractors directly into the upper level of the barn. The barn is 50 feet wide and 80 feet long and held 120 cattle.
Canary was a noted breeder of Hereford cattle. His cattle won many awards and brought the highest value at cattle sales and auctions. His Repeater breed was especially successful. One Hereford bull, named Repeater 63D, was the highest priced Hereford taken into Colorado by 1920 and sired countless offspring.
J. D. Canary had his cattle operation at Wildacre Ranch in Littleton for 14 years. In 1931, he announced that his Hereford breeding operation in Littleton would be moved to the family 2,000-acre ranch in Oklahoma near Caney, Kansas. In 1932, Canary sold this ranch to Charles Phillips who ranched it for a time and then started selling off parts of the ranch. He sold the parcel that included the barn to homebuilder Kenton C. Ensor. Ensor was a homebuilder and he and his father had started the K C Ensor Construction Company in 1932. Ensor built many homes in Denver and realized the high demand for sod for those new homes. In 1962, Ensor converted the ranch into the Green Valley Turf Farm to provide the sod for the fast-growing Denver region. The turf farm sold sod and irises and operated at this site for over 50 years. It is still in operation on other land and is Denver’s oldest turf-grass producer.
The barn, built in Littleton over 100 years ago and remaining on its original parcel of land, serves as a valuable reminder of the cultural heritage of the Littleton area. Littleton was originally established as an agricultural settlement and the barn is a key structure from that agricultural heritage.
The barn has architectural significance as an intact example of a bank barn with dual-level access. It was officially determined eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 under criterion C, for a distinctive architectural style and type of construction. The bank barn clearly displays the characteristics of the bank barn architectural style. It has not been significantly modified since its construction in 1918.
Preservation of the Barn
Toll Brothers, a national housing developer, bought the property that includes the barn and is developing it for housing and commercial uses. Gail Keeley, HLI President, entered into an agreement with Toll Brothers in 2022 that ensured the future preservation of the barn. Because the property was graded and filled, the barn was put on a temporary platform in October 2022. A new foundation was built into a bank of land and on July 23, 2024, the barn was moved from the temporary platform to the new foundation. The barn has been structurally stabilized, its windows were rehabilitated, it received a new roof and a new paint job. The Canary barn is now the community centerpiece of the new development.
Why is this barn important to Littleton
1. Built in 1918, it is the oldest barn remaining in Littleton and serves as a reminder of Littleton’s agricultural heritage.
2. It is the largest barn in Littleton and has not been modified from its original design.
3. It is one of only a few bank barns remaining in the Denver area. A bank barn is a distinctive style of barn built into a bank of land so that the upper level of the barn can be accessed from one side and the lower level can be accessed from the other side.
