Elderly barns are emblematic of the rural Midwest. In every shade from classic red to weathered brown, barns of various shapes and sizes tell a tale of an enduring agricultural tradition. South of Muncie, the legacy of a tiny barn on US-35 relates a different story: it has to do with ice cream.
Historic barns are charming, but they’re often obsolete thanks to the evolution of modern farming practices. Our world continues to evolve, but ice cream stands remain a constant source of joy. In the 1960s and 70s, Delaware County had no shortage of them, and Pat’s Dairy Bar-n tied agricultural aesthetics and ice cream together.
It takes little effort to stumble across some ice cream these days. Sixty or seventy years ago, chains like Dairy Queen, B-K, A&W, and Mister Softee served all kinds of frozen treats! Local favorites such as Goff’s, Burkie’s, Dairy Dream, and the Silver Dairy Bar got in on the action, too, and Patricia Rawlings of rural Perry Township decided to try her hand at the business around 1965.
Pat and Walt Rawlings lived at the corner of US-35 and County Road 650-South. Situated between the Central Friends Campground and the southernmost stretches of the new Prairie Creek Reservoir, Pat thought their homestead was the perfect spot for a drive-in restaurant! Unfortunately, the County Planning Commission disagreed.
The commission denied Rawlings’ request to rezone her acreage for commercial purposes, calling her plan “spot zoning,” and “lousy1.” Fortunately, Pat Rawlings was persistent. Later that year, she returned with a petition signed by every property owner but two in the mile surrounding her house2.
Rawlings’ proposal got unanimous approval the second time around, and Pat’s Dairy Bar-n opened in 19663. There’s nothing quite as alluring as the cool embrace of ice cream after a scorching day under the sun, and Pat’s promises of Pepsi products, root beer, and ice cream must have been irresistible to people headed home from Prairie Creek4!
The little barn with the big parking lot likely drew in locals from nearby hamlets, too. Farmers unloading grain at Medford stopped in, and residents of New Burlington probably patronized the place. The tiny Mount Pleasant Grocery sat a third of a mile southeast on US-35, but Pat’s offered a different value proposition: instead of gas, coffee, and cold cuts, Pat’s provided ice cream, Pepsi, and lots of it!
I’m sure other customers came in as they drove from Muncie to Richmond. I first saw the old Bar-n on a similar trip, but I hadn’t learned the story of the place. It struck me as strange that someone went through the trouble of building a one-car garage with a barn motif, side windows, and an outdoor drinking fountain just for the fun of it.
I eventually learned that the barn was home to the Dairy Bar-n, but researching the establishment was tricky. The drive-in wasn’t featured in the newspapers much after Pat’s battle with the County Planning Commission. In fact, the only ad I’ve found came from Center High School’s 1967 Memoria yearbook.
Lack of advertising may have been part of why Pat’s Dairy Bar-n didn’t last. After four years in operation, the Rawlings put their drive-in up for rent or lease In 19705. Despite its closure, the building remained a landmark: in 1972, classified ads for rummage sales still referred to the place as “Pat’s Dairy Bar6.”
It’s still a landmark for those in the know, but the building’s expansive parking lot was filled in between 1983 and 19927, and the garage door was installed sometime after 2008. Despite the changes, the place largely remains frozen in time.
Today, a trip past Pat’s Dairy Bar-n represents a voyage back to the days when the promise of a frozen treat brought smiles to faces. It’s been more than half a century since it closed, but Pat’s still preserves the essence of a bygone era. I was born twenty years too late to have been a customer of the little barn on the highway, but I get hungry for a vanilla cone every time I pass it.
Sources Cited
1 Snider, H. (1968, July 14). Rezoning on City’s Outskirts? It’s a Snap! The Muncie Star. Pp. 1-2.
2 Industrial Zoning Plea Denied by Commission (1965, October 8). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 12.
3 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2023). Parcel ID: 1618200012000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
4 For Rent Or Lease (1970, April 4). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 15.
5 (See footnote 4).
6 Hollywood Bed and Mattress (1972, September 18). The Muncie Star. p. 15.
7 Geo Coordinates (1992). Historic Aerials. Netronline. Web. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
Now I’m hungry for a vanilla cone too!