page_title: Hovander Homestead Park
section_title: The barn
hierarchical_section_title: Hovander Homestead Park / The barn
caption_attribution_description: English: Hovander Barn
context_page_description: Hovander Homestead Park, a roughly 350 acre county park that includes access to Tennant Lake, is located adjacent to Ferndale, Washington and borders the Nooksack River. It is named for the Hovander family, who immigrated from Sweden to the property in 1898 and designed the farmhouse, barn, and other buildings, some of which include distinctive architectural features. The homestead was owned by the Hovander family until 1969 when the Whatcom County government purchased the land from Hokan Hovander's son, Otis, and it officially became a county park in 1971.
  The park has been preserved to show the lives of 20th-century pioneers in the Northwest, as well as to preserve the history of the Hovander family. Hovander Homestead Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1978, the park received the National Trust for Historic Preservation award for the preservation of a significant and historic site.
context_section_description: At the same time that Hovander was planning and designing the farmhouse, he was also planning the barn. While the farmhouse is representative of Swedish architecture, Hovander's design for the barn was influenced by the barn designs he saw in the United States. Hovander disliked the common Swedish barn design of the time, as they were typically small, and was instead fascinated with the size and loft design of barns that he had seen in the United States. He designed the barn as a large space with a high ceiling, and hired men from Bellingham to build it. 
  
  Hokan painted the barn with a mixture of oil and iron rich soil which oxidized to a dull red, a practice that reportedly originated in Scandinavia. The Hovander Homestead is built on the Nooksack River's flood lands and Hokan had to account for the natural landscape by building the barn and the house on raised platforms.
caption: Hovander Barn
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