Red Roundhouse Barn The Red Roundhouse Barn of Fountain Grove

The Fountain Grove township north of Santa Rosa California was settled in 1875 by Thomas Lake Harris, a spiritual mystisist that relocated from his commune in New York. Having had at one time a following of over 2000 in the U.S. and England, Harris in his later years relocated to Santa Rosa. He was the spiritual leader of a commune called the Brotherhood of New Life, a utopian spiritual community whose productive center was one of wine making. Several buildings were built for the winery but it had no center piece of attention. Harris passed on but the manager of the Fountain Grove Winery, Kanaya Nagasawa, hired and directed an carpenter contractor named John Clark Lindsey from Napa to build a barn of some renown in 1899. The plans for the barn were drawn by the commune's resident architect whose name is not recorded. Nagasawa, on the other hand, was the first Japanese immigrant to the area and still remains somewhat of a historic figure in Japan. The 16-sided roundhouse barn housed the horses used for the winery. It is about 70 feet in diameter and almost 60 feet tall. In the day when labor was extensive and machinery minimal, round barns, or at least ones with no corners, were thought to be a more efficient floor plan because farmers could use the floor in a circular motion saving time and money.  

By the late1890's this utopian communities winery was producing over 70,000 gallons of wine which was about 90% of all wine made in Sonoma County at the time. The production continued until the last members of the commune disbanded in the late 1930's. Nagasawa remained until the end of his life in 1934. This Red Round Barn still stands today though in major disrepair. There have been many grand schemes  for the restoration of the barn but none have taken root, including a free offer of the barn to the City of Santa Rosa which was refused. A historic plague on the site and a nearby park is dedicated to Nagasawa and the commune's wine producing activity.