In 1912 Henry W. Fromme, a German immigrant, hired William "Pat" Campbell, a local carpenter, to build a large round barn to house 28 draft horses and a box stall for the registered Percheron stallion which he imported from France. Round barns were promoted as being more wind resistant, efficient use of space, and took less lumber to construct the same volume of space. The estimated cost was $8,000, which is several thousand dollars higher than that of other barns of the time. The barn is 50' tall and 70' in diameter, and despite the name, is not actually round, but 16-sided.​

Four years later, the Fromme family bought their first tractor in 1916, thus the barn was obsolete in just four short years after it was built. It was later used for hay storage.

In the 1980's Phyllis Birney received the barn and one acre of land from her husband Lawrence as a 15th wedding anniversary gift.

Through her efforts, in 1987 the barn became listed as the Fromme-Birney "Round" Barn on the National Register of Historic Places for it's architectural significance.  See the barn's National Register Nomination Form and Inventory Record. ​The Fromme-Birney Round Barn was voted in as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas - Architecture in 2008 by the Kansas Sampler Foundation, an organization that promotes rural culture.

​The barn was restored in 1995 with a Heritage Trust Fund Grant. The restoration was done by Jerry and Jeff Koehn. 

There is a miniature model of the Round Barn in the Kiowa County Historical Museum. 

History of the Owners of the property -
​*1885 to 1954 - The Henry W. Fromme Family - Homesteaders to successful farmers and community leaders. The Fromme family hired Pat Campbell to build the barn   
*1954 to 1993 - Joseph W. Birney and Nellie G. Birney purchased the farm and farmstead from the Fromme family in the 1950s. Their son Lawrence gifted the barn and one acre of land to his wife Phyllis in the 1980s
*1993 - Phyllis Birney gifted the barn and one acre of land to the Kiowa County Historical society in 1993