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NASHUA AVE
ODEAN AVE
85TH STREET
85TH STREET
MACIVER AVENUE
78TH STREET
PAGE AVE
75TH STREET
The Round Barn (2022)
Credit: John Waldron
The Lefebvre family is an integral part of the history of Otsego, both old and new.
The Lefebvre name in Otsego started with Ferdinand Lefebvre, who immigrated from Canada to this area in
1875. He married Zerilla Bourgeois, the oldest daughter of an Otsego farmer (who had also immigrated from
Canada in 1844). Ferdinand and Zerilla Lefebvre had several children and these descendants have added much
to our community. The original 1884 homestead of Ferdinand and Zerilla Lefebvre, located at the northwest
corner of Parrish Avenue (CSAH 42) and 85th Street, is familiar to many residents of Otsego today as the
location of a round barn.
About 1915, Ferdinand Lefebvre had the round barn built by his sons, Johnny, Joe, and Noel, with the help
of carpenters from Dayton. Most of the wood used in the construction of the round barn is roughhewn
tamarack built upon an outer rock wall foundation that is two feet thick, made with rock taken from Joe
Lefebvre’s land near the current Nashua Avenue and 85th Street intersection. The center column supporting
the roof is almost 50 feet in height and it looks like an opened umbrella inside of the hay mow. The roof was
replaced in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The round barn was originally painted red but it was later refurbished
with white metal siding and metal roofing. These modifications ended its opportunity to be recognized as
a registered historical building.
The farm was a dairy until the 1940’s with milk hauled to The Elk River Creamery. In the 1920’s and 1930’s it
was hauled by both horse and wagon and trucks; in the 1940’s it was solely by truck. This farm was the original
home of Noel Lefebvre & Sons Trucking which branched into the current day LeFebvre Companies and Randy
Lefebvre Milk Hauling. Eddie Lefebvre, a son of Noel Lefebvre, explained that the shape of the round barn was
very efficient for tending cattle. Hay stored in the hay mow would be thrown through a door in the floor down
to cattle in 23 stanchions (along with 4 horse stalls), whose heads were facing the middle of the building.
Manure would be shoveled from the gutter behind the cows into a manure trolley (hanging from a steel track)
which moved inside the barn to the outside. It was then loaded into the manure spreader, taken to fields and
spread as fertilizer.
Noel Lefebvre lived on the farm from 1925 until 1976. He and his wife Mary (nee Holland) had six children.
Their youngest son John Lefebvre (Ferdinand and Zerilla Lefebvre’s grandson) continued to farm the original
property after his father died; John never married or had children. When John Lefebvre died in 1997, his brother
Eddie Lefebvre’s son Kevin and his wife Benita moved to the property as the fourth generation of the family
to live at the farmstead with the round barn now in their care. Kevin and Benita Lefebvre have sold portions of
the original property for development. The Stonegate Estates neighborhood south of 85th Street, which was
developed in 2000, was originally part of their farm. The City of Otsego acquired land at the southwest corner
of the homestead in 2007 as a possible fire station location. More recently, Kevin and Benita have sold land
for new residential dwellings and commercial lots as part of the Parrish Meadows plat approved in 2021.
THE ROUND BARN
8585 Parrish Ave NE, Otsego, MN
TOWNSHIP OF OTSEGO
The Round Barn (circa 1920)
Credit: Otsego Heritage Preservation
John Lefebvre
(circa 1990)
Credit: Kevin Lefebvre
Noel and Mae
Lefebvre, (1970)
Credit: Kevin Lefebvre
Ferdinand and Zerilla
Lefebvre (1929)
Credit: Otsego Heritage Preservation
www.ci.otsego.mn.us
est.1858
Sources:
– Kevin Lefebvre
– Otsego Heritage Preservation
Commission
– Elk River Star News, “The Round
Barn” by Joni Astrup, May 2010
– US Censuses from the years
1920, 1930, 1940