Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• National Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 1/2-story gable-roofed structure with its ridge line oriented from northwest to southeast. The southwest eave side has a low pair of pass-through doors in the center of three small bays and a six-pane stable window to the right (east). The northwest gable-end has a tall two-over-two double hung window in the attic and a shed addition extending west across the width of the gable-end. The addition has a six-pane stable window in the end (southwest face) and a similar window and a pass-through door in the northwest eave facade. The northeast eave-side facade has one six-pane stable window off-center toward the south. An open woodshed is attached to the northeast side of the shed.
The roof is asphalt shingles and there is a small cupola with a hip roof, covered in copper roofing, with louvered panels in all sides. Siding is vertical flush boards painted red with white corner boards and window trim.

Historical significance:

Known as the shop, workshop, carpentry shop, toolshed, blacksmith shop, or machine shop, these small, well-lighted buildings provide a heated space for making and repairing furnishings, tools, and equipment, as well as for earning outside income through various trades. Typically 1 1/2 stories with a gabled front, and easily accessible doorway, and windows all around, most shops have a chimney for venting a cast iron rood or coal stove.

The village location and small size suggest that this may have been a carriage barn or work-shed. The form resembles a small English barn.

Field Notes

Barn original to site but moved to present location. Wooden vertical board siding is replacement siding. Present reuse for storage. Gales Ferry Historic District No. 2. I lived in the Capt. Allyn Williams house from 1971 until about 1978. I was co-authur of Historic Ledyard Vol. l Gales Ferry village. The barn you show is not as it was for many years earlier than 1978. I have several pictures to show the original. The sepia was a very early photo of the estate. The barns were moved behind the house, when I do not know. The color photo is my husband and I planting a Copper beech in celebration of our daughter Amy's birth in 1972. - Carolyn E. Smith, 9/28/2013

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• storage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Garage
• Garden

Environment features

• High Density
• Residential

Relationship to surroundings

The village of Gales Ferry is on the western edge of Ledyard on the Thames River where an 18th-century ferry route established the core of the settlement. The district consists of 19th-century buildings associated with the ferry, wharves, and seafaring commerce, summer residences built following the arrival of a railroad line from the coast, and civic buildings serving the village.

Building Typology

• Other Shed

Materials

• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

18 feet x 24 feet

Date Compiled

12/07/2009

Compiled By

Charlotte Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Field notes and photographs by Anne T. Roberts-Pierson 12/07/2009. 
Additional historic photos from Connie Smith, 9/28/2013.

Town of Ledyard Assessor’s Record Map/Lot 75-40-2 (house built 1803, barn 18 feet x 24 feet).

Cunningham, Jan, A Historic and Architectural  Resource Survey of the Town of Ledyard, Ledyard Historic District Commission, 1992.

Cunningham, Jan, Gales Ferry Historic District No. 1 National Register Historic District Nomination No. 92001639, National Park Service, 1992.

Ransom, David, Gales Ferry Historic District No. 2 National Register Historic District Nomination No. 02000865, National Park Service, 2002.

Foster, Kit, Ledyard Town Historian, history of Ledyard
http://www.town.ledyard.ct.us/index.aspx?NID=279
http://www.town.ledyard.ct.us/index.aspx?NID=280
http://www.town.ledyard.ct.us/index.aspx?NID=281

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.