Architectural description:
This is a 1 1/2 story six-bay side or eave-entry bank barn with a shed-roofed addition and a gable-roofed addition. The main facade and the ridge-line of the barn are parallel to Exeter Road, which runs approximately east-west. The main entries are a pair of double-height exterior sliding doors in the second and fifth bays. The easternmost bay has a pass-through door. The westernmost bay has a wrap-around roof that connects to a gable-roofed addition that extends west from the west gable-facade. It is a milkhouse. The south eave-facade of the barn has a shed-roofed pole barn addition that encompasses the entire facade. The grade drops away sharply on the gable-facade, where a mortared field-stone basement is revealed. In the basement of the facade is an exterior sliding door flanked by basement window openings. Above in the main level of the barn are three six-pane windows. The only other opening is a window space below the apex of the roof. At the point of intersection of the barn and shed-roofed addition is a flair that covers the intersection. The barn has vertical flush-board siding painted red with white trim and a mortared filed-stone foundation.
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 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. In this case, it appears as if two three-bays barns were joined together.
Listed on the State Register of Historic Places 6/04/2014.
Yes
n/a
Original Site
The barn is behind and to the southeast of the house it is associated with, which faces Exeter Road. Behind the house to the south is a garage. Further south and to the east are two small ponds. To the southeast is a patch of dense woodland, then a series of tracts of open space used for agriculture, some of which are bordered by stone walls. The total size of the site is 6.5 acres. The area surrounding the site is scattered residential and active agriculture with patches of dense woodland.
mblu = 253//4
3200 S.F.
07/25/2010
Todd Levine, reviewed by the Connecticut Trust
Photographs by Todd Levine: 11/13/2006.
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.
Map of the Lebanon, CT, retrieved on July 25, 2010 from website www.zillow.com.
Town of Lebanon assessors office, 579 Exeter Road, Lebanon, CT 06249.