Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• National Register
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a two barn complex towards the west of Main Street with Barn-I towards the south and Barn-II towards the north. The barns are arranged with their gable-ends facing each other and are separated by a passage which has a screen wall flush with the east eave-side on either side. The ridge lines of both the barns, Barn-I and Barn-II, run north-south parallel to each other and to the road. The following is the description of Barn-I while Barn-II is discussed in http://www.connecticutbarns.org/5395.

Barn-I: This is a 1 ½ - story three-bay eave-entry barn with its ridge line running north-south parallel to Main Street. The three-bay east 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 hinged wagon doors with trim and blacksmith hardware. A ten-pane horizontal transom window can be seen centered above the main entrance. The first bay from the north on the main façade appears to have two hinged wagon door entrances with blacksmith hardware and a continuous trim at the lintel level. The first bay from the north also has a closed window with vertical boards centered above the horizontal trim. The first bay from the south of main east façade of the barn also has an entrance towards the edge through an exterior-hung horse-shoe track sliding pass-through door. The south gable-end of the barn originally appears to have a pass-through door towards the west which now has a two-pane window insert while three square single-pane windows can be seen towards the east. The gable attic is separated from the rest of the gable-end by a distinct dropped girt siding divide line and has a one-over-one double-hung sash window just below the apex of the roof. The three-bay west eave-side of the barn has numerous markings on the siding which suggest the openings have been altered through time. A hinged pass-through door is now centered in the middle bay while two hinged pass-through doors can be seen in the flanking bays. A one-over-one double-hung sash window can be seen towards the north of the pass-through entrance in the first bay from the south while a two-pane window can be seen towards the north of the pass-through door in the first bay from the north.

The wooden frame of the barn has asphalt shingles roofing and white painted vertical siding with dark brown painted trim and corner boards. The vertical siding on west eave-side of the barn from the northern edge to the pass-through door at a center is painted brown and has a band of asphalt siding just below the eave level.

Historical significance:

The main residence associated with the barns 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.

Field Notes

There are three barns on or adjacent to this property. This is the barn owned by the Millers. Two other barns are on farm lots that currently have no street number designations. Also see part 2 of 2 : http://www.connecticutbarns.org/5395. [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

No

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn

Environment features

• Open Land
• Residential
• Rural

Relationship to surroundings

The 1.47 acres property, Account Number- 0007370 and Map Number- 21 43 A, is located towards the west of Main Street. The property is located in the rural-residential community of Windsor Farms Historic District on the National Register. Residential properties flank the property towards the north, south and the east across the road while parcels of farm land with barns can be seen towards the west and the southwest.

The two barns are located along the western edge of the property with Barn-I towards the south and the Barn-II towards the north. The ridge lines of both the barns run north-south parallel to each other and to the road. The barns are arranged with their gable-ends facing each other and are separated by a passage which has a screen wall flush with the east eave-side on either side. The east eave-side of Barn-II opens into a fenced yard. The circa 1910 colonial main residence of the property is located towards the east of Barn-I, off-centered towards the south. The property is accessed by a driveway towards the south of the main residence while the rest of the plot is open land

Building Typology

• English

Materials

• Asphalt Siding
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam
• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

Barn: 2700 SqFt, Circa 1920; Barn: 3480 SqFt, Circa 1920;

Date Compiled

06/06/2011

Compiled By

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

Sources

Field notes provided by: Art Utay, 02/06/2008.

Additional field notes and photographs provided by Dan Taylor, 04/17/2010. 

Assessors’ information retrieved on June 6th, 2011 from website www.southwindsor.org/pages/swindsorct_assessor/index

GIS Map and information retrieved on June 6th, 2011 from website www.southwindsor.org/pages/swindsorct_dpw/gis/gis

Cunningham Jan, Edited by Herzan John, Windsor Farms Historic District, National Register Nomination Number-86000723, National Park Service, 1986.
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/86000723.pdf
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/86000723.pdf

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 6th, 2011 from website http://www.google.com

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 6th, 2011 from website http://www.bing.com.

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 6th, 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.