About Our Association

The Adams County Olde Tyme Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the agricultural history of Adams County, Illinois for future generations. Located adjacent to the Adams County Fairgrounds on Hwy 336 south of Mendon, our heritage sites offer a living window into the past.

Our crown jewel — the Lewis Round Barn Museum — was built over 100 years ago on the Charles Lewis Farm near Clayton for his beef cattle. In 1999, the Lewis family generously donated the barn to our association. It was carefully disassembled and rebuilt at the Fairgrounds with the help of Amish carpenters, an incredible feat that moved the structure 20 miles.

Today, the museum houses antique farm implements and hand tools on the lower level, while the loft is dedicated to the farm woman's life in the 1930s — complete with a three-room house, beauty shop, grocery store, garden area, rug looms, quilting displays, and much more.

Beyond the Round Barn, our association cares for a growing collection of historic structures at the Fairgrounds — a working Print Shop, an original Log Cabin, the One-Room Schoolhouse, the 1890 Hillman Barn, and the D.W. Kramberg Farm Granary. Each building has been rescued, relocated, or restored by volunteers who donate their time, tools, and memories so that tomorrow's visitors can walk through the same doorways their grandparents once did.

Our work does not stop at preservation. Throughout the year the association hosts the Spring and Fall Flea Markets & Craft Shows, an antique Tractor Show, and participates in the Adams County Fair. We welcome hundreds of vendors, exhibitors, and families each season, and we open our sites by appointment so school groups, clubs, and curious passersby can learn how rural Adams County lived, worked, and worshipped across the generations.

The Association is run entirely by volunteers. Whether you can swing a hammer at a work night, guide a tour through the Round Barn, help judge a craft show, or simply share a story at a potluck, there is a place for you here. Memberships and donations keep the doors open and the wagon rolling, but it is the people who give it all heart.