Is there anyone who can tell me where I might be able to find the number of roundhouses that still exist in the United States? And of those still standing, how many have been adaptively reused and what are some of those uses? Just point me in the right direction...thanks!

Nevermind! I have the NRHS website right here in my Favorites list. Oops. But I'm still wondering about the second half of my question.

Unfortunately, there is no quick way to answer either part of your question. The NRHS list has many inaccuracies and includes many buildings long since demolished and omits others still extant – I wouldn’t use it for anything other than a rough sketch (at best). I have a small, un-compiled, list of roundhouses and shops that are currently in adaptive or are in the planning stages.

In terms of determining the importance of the Frankfort facility (or any other roundhouse/shop) it is not as important to consider how many other roundhouses are still extant as it is to consider how intact the Frankfort roundhouse is. Most surviving roundhouses have been in adaptive re-use for 50 years or more, mostly in some industrial capacity. While some of the more prominent architectural features may remain, almost all specialized machinery, cranes, and support facilities for workers and locomotives are gone without a trace. What makes Frankfort special is that it never left railroad service, which means the building and its contents, shows how the railroad adapted it to suit changing technologies and for new uses. Moreover, roundhouses performed specialized functions depending on their location on a railroad – simply counting the number of extant roundhouses (what the NRHS database tries to do) would really dilute the importance of an intact roundhouse at a division point – (what the Frankfort roundhouse is). Think of it this way – imagine if somebody could give you a number of how trucks are in the state of Michigan – without knowing how they defined a truck (i.e. pick-up trucks, semi tractor trailers, 2-story tall mining vehicles, etc.) the number would be virtually useless.

To the point – In composing your statement of significance, It should be sufficient to say that the Frankfort roundhouse site is significant as a uniquely intact survivor of a type of site that was once very common across the United States. That while other roundhouses may survive in railroad use or in adaptive re-use, most have lost significant elements of their historic fabric would allow the understanding of their use and evolution.

In evaluating the significance of historic buildings and sites (of all types) I recommend consulting:

Assessing Site Significance: A Guide for Archaeologists and Historians (Heritage Resource Management Series)
by Donald L. Hardesty, Barbara J. Little, Don Fowler
• Publisher: Altamira Press; (December 28, 2000)
• ISBN: 074250316X

Also, please contact me off-line - I have a scan of a Sanborn map and a recent aerial photo of the site that you may be interested in.