227 Rope Ferry Road, Waterford (Eastern Coastal Slope)

Designations

National Register

Historic Significance

Architectural Description:

This is a 2 ½ story barn with entries from both gable-side and eave-side. The eastern gable-façade of the barn facing Rope Ferry road is the main façade of the barn and is symmetrical along the central axis through the apex of the roof. The barn has a shed-roofed addition along its western gable-façade with its side walls flush with the northern and southern eave-facades of the main barn. The main entrance to the barn is centered on the main eastern gable-façade though a pair of exterior-hung double-leaf hooded sliding doors. Each leaf of the sliding door is divided into three segments by horizontal rails, with a semi-circular trim inserted in the lower segment. The upper two segments are further divided by a vertical insert at the center. The wooden-hood mounted above the main entrance continues through-out the gable-façade to form a horizontal trim. The façade has a hinged hay-door centered at the second floor level, just above the horizontal trim. The leaf of the hay-door has the same pattern as seen on the leaf of the main entrance. A six-over-six double-hung sliding window can be seen on either side of the hay-door. The hay-door and both the windows are surrounded by a white pedimented-trim. A pair of double-hung sliding windows with gothic detailed window trim can be seen just below the apex of the roof. The northern eave-façade of the barn has a main entrance off-centered towards the east through a pair of hinged doors with a white trim and a hinged pass-through door towards the west. The façade also has two six-over-six double-hung windows with pedimented-trims, one towards the east of the main hinged door and the other above the pass-through door at the second floor level. The northern eave-façade of the barn continues to form the flush side wall of the shed-roofed addition and has an over-head garage door entrance at the center. The shed-roofed addition along the western gable-façade of the barn has an accessible stilt supported on field-stone and concrete foundation. The southern eave-façade of the barn has a pass-through door at the first floor level, flanked in between two six-over-six double-hung sliding windows with pedimented-trim. The façade also has two six-over-six double-hung sliding windows with pedimented-trim second floor level and a similar window centered on the southern gable-wall of the shed-roofed addition. The gable-roof of the barn has a louvered cupola can at the center and a brick chimney towards the west.
The wooden frame of the barn is supported on field-stone and concrete masonry. The barn has asphalt roofing with red-painted vertical siding walls with white trim.

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. In this case the two styles are combined; both a gable entry and an eave entry are used.

Until the 1830s, the horses used for riding and driving carriages were often kept in the main barn along with the other farm animals. By the 1850s, some New England farmers built separate horse stables and carriage houses. Early carriage houses were built just to shelter a carriage and perhaps a sleigh, but no horses. The pre-cursor to the twentieth-century garage, these outbuildings are distinguished by their large hinged doors, few windows, and proximity to the dooryard. The combined horse stable and carriage house continued to be a common farm building through the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, until automobiles became common. Elaborate carriage houses were also associated with gentlemen farms and country estates of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Another form of carriage barn, the urban livery stable, served the needs of tradespeople.

Field Notes

Visible from road. Historic use: carriage barn. Photographed December 16, 2009 A contributing resource in the Graniteville Historic District. Clouette, Section 7: House, 227 Rope Ferry Road, ca. 1850. One and one-half stories, clapboarded exterior, two- over-two sash, brick center chimney. Board-sided barn to south, ca. 1870, is Gothic Revival style, with pointed windows in the gable and doors suggestive of tracery. Home of physician O. B. Matthews (1850s) and quarryman Philo Gates. Photographs 10 and 11. Two contributing buildings.

Use (Historic)

carriage barn

Use (Present)

unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

The property is towards the west of Rope Ferry Road with the carriage house abutting to the road. The barn has a strategic location along the road with all three sides (the eastern gable-façade and the two eave-façades) clearly visible from the approach road. A 1 ½ story residence can be seen towards the north of the carriage house. Dense woodland can be seen towards the west of the carriage house with a water stream running in close proximity.
This property and the adjacent row of houses are in the Graniteville Historic District, which documents the importance of granite quarrying in the history of Waterford.

Building Typology

Carriage House

Materials

Approximate Dimensions

n/a

Date Compiled

06/30/2010

Compiled By

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

Sources

Photographs and information provided by –
Kathya Landeros,

Clouette, Bruce, Graniteville National Register Historic District Nomination No. 03000812, National Park Service, 2003.

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.

Historic Barns of Connecticut

Barn Record Waterford