Arcadia's Round Barn to Celebrate Its Renovation

An Oklahoma landmark celebrates a twentieth anniversary this weekend, but the building itself is five times older than that.

Built by William and Myra Odor in 1898, the Round Barn in Arcadia, Oklahoma underwent a major four-year renovation beginning in the late eighties.  Time, along with decades of Oklahoma weather had taken a serious toll on the old structure.

The Odors sold the barn to Frank and Katy Vrana in the 1940s, and their children donated the barn to a group of local residents in 1988.   The group was mostly retirees from the Arcadia area who called themselves the "Over-the-hill gang."  

"We thought and thought for about thirty seconds and said 'Okay, we'll do it,'" said "Mister Sam" Gillaspy.  Gillaspy was a part of the group that saved the barn.  "That was in 1988, four years later you see what we have today."

All of Gillaspy's eighty-six years have been spent in the Arcadia area, and he's elated that the barn has received more and more visitors each year since the renovation. Gillaspy said he'd met people from all over the world at Arcadia's Round Barn.

"Another six to eight months, if we hadn't gotten it when we did, it would have been completely gone," said Gillaspy.  "It would have been bulldozed down."