Once the summer home of Chicago based Arts & Crafts architect, Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926), Ragdale now offers 2 - 8 week residency programs for over 200 artists a year. The Barnhouse is composed of an 1830s farmhouse, and Shaw's 1897 barn and wagon shed. In the 1930s, Shaw's youngest daughter and her architect husband joined the buildings and turned the assemblage into a single structure for their family home. Currently, the Barnhouse contains the Ragdale Foundation's offices, living room, dining room, large kitchen, artists' sleeping quarters, studios and a conference room.