Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 1/2 story side or eave-entry barn with a later gable-facade entry. The main eave-facade has a pair of exterior sliding doors as the original main entry facing Round Hill Road, which runs approximately east-west. Above the sliding doors is a fifteen-pane transom lite. To the west of the sliding doors is a six-over-six double hung window. The west gable-facade has an overhead garage door. Above the garage door is a bottom hinged hay door with an metal hay forklift just beneath the apex of the roof. The barn is clad in vertical siding painted white and has an asphalt shingle roof.

Historical significance:

The oldest barns still found in the state are called the “English Barn,” “side-entry barn,” “eave entry,” or a 30 x 40. They are simple buildings with rectangular plan, pitched gable roof, and a door or doors located on one or both of the “eave” sides of the building based on the grain warehouses of the English colonists’ homeland.  The New England barn or gable front barn was the successor to the English barn and relies on a gable entry rather than an entry under the eaves. The gable front offers many practical advantages. Roofs drain off the side, rather than flooding the dooryard. Although it was seen by many as an improvement over the earlier side entry English Barn, the New England barn did not replace its predecessor but rather coexisted with it. It this case, both an eave entry and a gable entry are used.

Field Notes

Frame made from Separtist Church. The Palmers own 8 Round Hill Road, barns are across the street at 0 Round Hill Road. Address provided ranged from #'s 0-8 on Round Hill Road. (Photographer unsure)

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• unknown

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Shed

Environment features

• Residential

Relationship to surroundings

The barn is set behind the main house in a complex of other sheds and outbuildings.

Building Typology

• English
• English/New England Hybrid

Materials

• Vertical Siding

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Structural System

n/a

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

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Roof type

• Gable

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Approximate Dimensions

38 x 54

Date Compiled

03/17/2010

Compiled By

Todd Levine, reviewed by the Connecticut Trust

Sources

Photograph and field notes by Stephanie Lessard - 09/29/2009

Sexton, James, PhD; Survey Narrative of the Connecticut Barn, Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Hamden, CT, 2005, http://www.connecticutbarns.org/history.

Visser, Thomas D.,Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, University Press of New England,1997.

Town of Lisbon Assessors office.