452 Main Street, South Windsor (Central Valley) | Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a two barn complex towards the east of Main Street with Barn-I towards the north and Barn-II towards its southwest. The ridge line of both Barn-I and Barn-II run north-south parallel to each other and to the road.

Barn-I: This is a 1 ½ - story three-bay eave-entry barn with a gable-roof addition on its west eave-side towards the north. The ridge line of the main barn runs north-south parallel to Main Street while that of the gable-roof addition runs east-west. The three-bay west eave-side of the barn facing the road is the main façade with the main entrance centered in the middle-bay through a pair of double-height paneled sliding wagon doors which appear to be sliding on interior-hung tracks. A four-pane horizontal transom window with trim can be seen above the main entrance. The façade has a second entrance towards the extreme south through a hinged pass-through door with trim. A six-over-one double-hung sash window with shutters can be seen towards the immediate north of the pass-through door. The south gable-end of the barn appears to have a hinged pass-through door off-centered towards the west, flanked by a window on either side. The gable attic appears to be separated by a girt siding divide line and has a window just below the apex of the roof. The gable-roof of the barn has a cupola centered along the ridge line with a window on each side.

The wooden frame of the barn has asphalt shingles roofing and appears to have white painted ply board with dark brown trim.

Barn-II: This is a 1 ½ - story gable-entry barn with its ridge line running north-south parallel to Main Street. The west eave-side of the barn faces the road while the north gable-end is the main façade with the main entrance at the center through a wagon door entrance. The west eave-side of the barn is flush with the fence towards the south and has a system of ventilation through the vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors, each held in place by its own hook. The south gable-end of the barn also appears to have a system of ventilation through the vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors, each held in place by its own hook. The gable attic is separated from the rest of the gable-end by a distinct dropped girt siding divide line and appears to be blank.

The wooden frame of the barn has asphalt shingles roofing and white painted vertical siding walls.

Historical significance:

The main residence associated with the barn is contributing to Windsor Farms Historic District, 86000723 NRIS.

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 name “30 by 40” originates from its size (in feet), which was large enough for 1 family and could service about 100 acres. The multi-purpose use of the English barn is reflected by the building’s construction in three distinct bays - one for each use. The middle bay was used for threshing, which is separating the seed from the stalk in wheat and oat by beating the stalks with a flail. The flanking bays would be for animals and hay storage.

The vertical slats along the west eave-side of Barn-II suggest its usage as a tobacco shed.

The tobacco barn, or shed as it is called in the Connecticut River Valley, is one of the most distinctive of the single-crop barns. They tend to be long, low windowless buildings with pitched roofs. They are characterized by vented sides to regulate air flow and allow harvested tobacco to cure at the appropriate rate. Derived initially from the design of the English barn, the shed is composed of a fixed skeleton consisting of two- or three-aisle bents repeated at intervals of 15 feet to the desired length. The wood-framed bents sit on piers of stone or concrete and the bents are connected by girts and diagonal braces. Typically there are two doors at each end, making the shed a “drive-through,” although some sheds are accessed through doors on the sides. The interior structural framework serves a second purpose in addition to supporting the walls and roof of the building; it provides a framework for the rails used to hang the tobacco as it cures. This is accomplished with one of four different systems (more than one method may be utilized in a single shed):

a) Vertical slats - siding in which every second board is hinged at the top and tilted out at the bottom by means of a horizontal cleat, that lifts several boards at once, and metal prop hooks to hold the boards in place;

b) Side slats - Vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors, each held in place by its own hook;

c) Less commonly, horizontal siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the top edge and open like long narrow awnings; this system may be employed along the lower edge of the wall in conjunction with vertical or side slats;

d) A series of large doors along one of the long sides of the building with the other sides of the building vented by one or more of the other methods.

e) The tobacco sheds can have additional ventilation through side-pivot awning vents on the gable-ends, which co-exist with one or more of the above four systems of ventilation.

Field Notes

photo (view 1): front from street photo (view 2): out building on south side of house [The Windsor Farms District is a 2 ½ square mile area on the east bank of Connecticut River which comprises the historical center of South Windsor. The Windsor Farms Historic District is a well-preserved, rural-residential community if great historic significance. It is one of the few farming villages remaining in the Connecticut still devoted to tobacco agriculture. Unlike the more typical historic rural areas of the state where the historic components are widely scattered, the Windsor Farms Historic District is highly a concentrated, cohesive entity. Not only does it contain a significant group of farmhouses, barns and other specialized buildings related to tobacco agriculture, it also encompasses approximately 1500 acres of contiguous historic farmland which has been under intensive cultivation for more than 300 years.][NR]

Use (Historic)

agriculture

Use (Present)

unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

The 4.8 acres property, Account Number- 0005356 and Map Number- 21 34, is located towards the east of Main Street. The property is located in the rural-residential community of Windsor Farms Historic District on the National Register. Farm land with farm houses and barns surround the property in all directions.

The three-bay eave-entry barn, Barn-I is located along the northern edge of the property, off-set from the road. The ridge line of the barn runs north-south almost parallel to the Main Street. The barn is accessed by a driveway from the west. The circa 1840 colonial main residence of the property is located towards the southwest of the barn towards the south of the driveway, nearer to the road. The 1 ½- story gable-entry gable-roof barn, Barn-II is located towards the immediate southwest of Barn-I. A fenced area can be seen towards the south and the east of Barn-II. A garage is located towards the west of the Barn-I, off-centered towards the north while evidence of no longer standing sheds can be seen towards the east. The remaining area of the property towards the east of the building complex has farmland with active agriculture practice.

Building Typology

Materials

Approximate Dimensions

Barn: 1200 SqFt, Circa 1840; Barn: 1260 SqFt, Circa 1840; Shed: 540 SqFt, Circa 1840; Shed: 2700 SqFt, Circa 1840; Garage: 240 SqFt, Circa 1840;

Date Compiled

06/02/2011

Compiled By

T. Levine and M. Patnaik, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Field notes provided by: Dan Taylor, 04/17/2010

Assessors’ information retrieved on June 2nd, 2011 from website
www.southwindsor.org/pages/swindsorct_assessor/index

GIS Map and information retrieved on June 2nd, 2011 from website www.southwindsor.org/pages/swindsorct_dpw/gis/gis

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 2nd, 2011 from website http://www.google.com

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 2nd, 2011 from website http://www.bing.com.

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 2nd, 2011 from website http://www.zillow.com.

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.

Cunningham, Jan, Windsor Farms Historic District National Register Nomination No. 86000723, National Park Service, 1986.

Barn Record South Windsor