Elm Spring Farm (664 Rimmon Hill Road, Beacon Falls (Western Uplands))

Designations

State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

Barn I is a 28 foot x 30 foot English bank barn with its ridge-line oriented east-west and its primary entry in the north eave-side.

Exterior: the foundation consists of a 2-foot-thick mortared fieldstone wall on three sides, with the south side being open to grade at the downhill elevation. The main level is a three-bay gable-roofed post-and-beam structure. The north eave-side is accessible at the uphill grade, via an exterior sliding barn door in the center bay. The two side bays are sheathed in horizontal lap siding. The west gable-end has a pair of sliding barn doors in the left (north) half, both of which slide toward the right. This elevation is sheathed in vertical boards. The grade is level as far as the center and then is exposed along a flight of stone steps leading down to the lower grade level. The exposed wall has cobblestone facing, and an additional retaining wall runs west to meet the wall of Barn IV. The east wall of Barn I extends roughly six feet beyond the timber frame in a saltbox-like extension and the foundation extends part way. The south side is encompassed by the shed-roof of Barn III which butts against it below the eave-line. The east gable-end of Barn I is exposed for 20 feet from the northeast corner, and is abutted by the gable-end of Barn II for the remainder. It is sheathed with horizontal lap siding with a corner board and rake board.
The roof is covered with corrugated metal panels, rusting and peeling off in some areas. Siding is painted white.

Interior: The three-bay timber frame is composed of mainly hand-hewn timbers joined with square-rule framing and wood pegs, with some sawn material used for the diagonal braces. The lateral girts of each bent are dropped slightly below the plate. Some of the wall girts in the south wall have been removed, probably for access to the extension space. The rafters span the full distance to the ridge and are mostly round poles. There are short collar ties near the peak. The rafters on the south pitch have been spliced with extensions to create the salt-box profile visible from the exterior.

The cellar level opens to Barn III and became an extension of the ground level stable area when Barn III was added.

Barn II is an approximately 34-foot x 64-foot Dutch gambrel-roofed bank barn with its ridge-line oriented roughly east-west. The lower level is configured as a ground-level stable barn for dairy cows, while the upper level is the hay mow. The lower level has half-walls of concrete and cobble-stone with wood knee walls supporting the framing for the upper level. The upper part is constructed with wood balloon framing with trusses assembled from dimension lumber.

Exterior: The north eave-side is accessible from the upper grade level. To the east of Barn I and set back approximately 20 feet toward the south, it has a 1-story wall below the eave-line of a Dutch gambrel roof. At the right (west) corner an exterior sliding barn door provides access to the upper level floor. At the third points of the north side, two hay doors are located high in the wall below the eave. A portable hay conveyor is used to load baled hay into the loft. The wall is sheathed with wood horizontal lap siding, in which areas of patching or of previous openings can be detected. Toward the left (east) grade declines slightly and a 2-foot exposure of the mortared fieldstone foundation wall is visible, with basement windows and an areaway with steps down to the basement. Four steel cables have been installed from the sill plate, anchored into the ground north of the structure.

The east gable-end has access to the basement level at the lower grade, as a retaining wall at the northeast corner makes the grade transition. The basement has half-height walls of concrete with cobblestone facing and a door opening, now with an overhead door, in the center. The upper portion of the wall is wood-framed and the doorway is flanked by two six-pane stable window on each side. Above at the main level the first floor wall and attic level are sheathed in wood horizontal lap siding. There is a hinged hay door at the floor level and above there appear to be openings for former hay doors, now patched with plywood. At the peak there is the remnant of a metal hay track.
The south eave-side is fully exposed at the lower grade level. Half walls of cobblestone support wood knee-walls with a row of closely-spaced six-pane stable windows with trim, including beveled head lintels, set into vertical wood siding. The upper level is sheathed with wood horizontal lap siding, painted white, on which are painted the letters “ELM SPRING FARM” in faux three dimensional block letters, black faces with red sides. This is visible from a distance to traffic driving north on Rimmon Hill Road. The south wall is flush with Barn III (see below).

West of the center an 18 x 22-foot 1-story milk room wing projects southward. This has matching cobblestone base wall with wood siding and six-pane windows above on its south gable-end but concrete block masonry on the east eave-side and wood infill on the west. The roof is a miniature gambrel over the eastern part with a hip-roofed section along the west side where there appears to have been an open porch.

The west gable-end is covered at the basement level and partially at the upper level by Barn III. There is a small window opening toward the right (south) of the attic level and another below the peak. Some siding damage is visible at the left (north) above the roof of Barn I.
The roof is metal interlocking panels except the milk room wing which has asphalt shingle roofing. Exposed rafter tails are visible along the flared eaves. There are three metal ventilators evenly spaced on the ridge-line.

Interior: The structure of the lower level consists of concrete half-walls faced on the exterior with cobblestone, and a center aisle running the length of the barn flanked by two rows of cow stanchions. Two rows of posts, some wood and some metal, support timber girders above on which the wood joists of the upper level are supported. The floor is concrete, with gutters for manure collection along the inner side of the post bases. The feeding troughs run along the outer walls. Some metal stanchions remain in place though much has been removed. The ceiling formed by the framing above has been whitewashed.
The upper level is a dramatic high space formed by a series of five pairs of scissor trusses each supporting the wall and roof planes and meeting at the ridge. These trusses are typical of balloon-framed barns of this type and period. A purlin runs longitudinally at the break line in the roof pitches, and intermediate rafters form the roof planes between trusses. Spaced wood sheathing boards and old wood shingle roofing are visible from the interior. The old hay track is visible at the ridge. Steel cabling has been added at the eave-line in two locations to prevent spreading deformation. The end walls are framed with full 2 x 6 dimension lumber studs. The floor is wood planks.

Barn III is an approximately 26- x 28-foot addition which squares off the angle between the south side of Barn I and the west side of Barn II. It allowed the cow stable area to be extended westward to accommodate additional animals. The concrete floor is an extension of the adjacent floor to the east.

Exterior: The south wall is constructed of concrete and cobble facing with a row of 7 stable windows above, exactly to match the older barn. The roof is a long low-pitched shed rising from an eave-line just clearing the south windows, to butt against the wall of Barn I just below its eave-line. The west gable-end continues the cobbled base wall around to the jamb of a pair of sliding exterior doors near the left (north) corner. Both doors slide to the right, due to their location near the corner. Siding on the west end is vertical boards. The roof has metal panels with some translucent fiberglas sections to allow light inside.

Interior: The interior aligns with the double-aisle dairy cow layout of the gambrel barn (Barn II). A clear span is accomplished by means of a wood girder at the mid-span of the rafters. The north aisle extends into the cellar space below Barn I. The ceiling formed by the framing of the upper level of Barn I has been whitewashed.

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.

The 19th century also saw the introduction of a basement under the barn to allow for the easy collection and storage of a winter’s worth of manure from the animals sheltered within the building. The bank barn is characterized by the location of its main floor above grade, either through building on a hillside or by raising the building on a foundation.
This innovation, aided by the introduction of windows for light and ventilation, would eventually be joined by the introduction of space to shelter more animals under the main floor of the barn.

By the early 20th century agricultural engineers developed a new approach to dairy barn design: the ground-level stable barn, to reduce the spread of tuberculosis bacteria by improving ventilation, lighting, and reducing the airborne dust of manure. A concrete slab typically serves as the floor for the cow stables. Many farmers converted manure basements in older barns into ground-level stables with concrete floors. Some older barns were jacked up and set on new first stories to allow sufficient headroom. With the stables occupying the entire first story, the space above serves as a hayloft. By the 1920s most ground-level stable barns were being constructed with lightweight balloon frames using two-by-fours or two-by-sixes for most of the timbers. Novelty or tongue-and-groove beveled siding is common on the walls, although asbestos cement shingles also were a popular sheathing. Some barns have concrete for the first-story walls, either poured in place or built up out of blocks.

The gambrel roof design was universally accepted as it enclosed a much greater volume than a gable roof did, and its shape could be formed with trusses that did not require cross beams, which would interfere with the movement and storage of hay. Also known as the curb roof, the double slopes of the gambrel offer more volume in the hayloft without increasing the height of the side walls.

Field Notes

Listed on the State Register of Historic Places 4/03/2013 Rimmon Hill is a dramatic ridge sloping down to the Naugatuck River on the east and the Little River (Oxford) on the west. A series of farms and some housing development occupy the ridgeline. Mailing address is 475 Rimmon Hill Road. Under single ownership is 61.4 acres on the east side (664 Rimmon Hill Road) and 54 acres on the west side (477 Rimmon Hill Road).

Use (Historic)

dairy

Use (Present)

agriculture

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

The property includes over 100 acres located along both sides of Rimmon Hill Road, which takes a turn towards the southeast forming the southern edge of the plot. The property is located in a predominantly residential area of rural character. The area towards the south and the east is covered by dense woodland while the Naugatuck river can be seen further east. Residential development can be seen along the northern edge of the property.

The multi-unit barn complex is located in the southwest corner of the eastern property abutting Rimmon Hill Road. The main residence of the plot is located towards the west of the barn group nearer to the road while a few outbuildings can be seen towards the northeast. The property is accessed by a driveway which loops around the main residence and continues eastward along the north side of the barn group. There is not active dairy farming at present, but hay is harvested and baled, and some evidence of logs and brush storage is visible along the eastern edge of the open land. The western property has a gable-roofed barn downslope toward the west from the road.

East of the house are outbuildings. Structures include: from west to east, a springhouse or milk room (Barn IV), English bank barn (Barn I), gambrel dairy barn with milk room wing (Barn II), a shed-roofed structure (Barn III) filling the angle between Barns I and II, and the foundation of a silo. North of the house is a workshop/bank barn (Barn V). To the east upslope are several non-contributing structures: a gable-roofed garage attached to a gambrel-roofed shed, an open-sided pole-barn equipment shed, and a partially collapsed wagon shed. South of the farm complex is a small pond. Downslope on the west side of Rimmon Hill Road there is a New England bank barn (Barn VI). On the west side of the road south of the main farm there are several additional houses on parcels belonging to family members. On the west side of the road north of the main farm is a house belonging to the family. The houses are predominantly mid-20th-century structures.

Building Typology

Materials

Structural System

Roof materials

Roof type

Approximate Dimensions

Barn I: 28 x 30 feet, Barn II: 34 x 64 feet, Barn III: 26 x 28 feet

Date Compiled

06/22/2011

Compiled By

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

Sources

Field notes and photographs provided by: Charlotte Hitchcock, 03/24/2009.

Beacon Falls GIS viewer http://www.cogcnvgis.com/BeaconFalls/ags_map/
Parcel ID: 664 Rimmon Hill Road 001-005-0006
Parcel ID: 477 Rimmon Hill Road 001-001-0015

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 22nd, 2011 from website http://www.google.com

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 22nd, 2011 from website http://www.bing.com.

Photograph/Information retrieved on June 22nd, 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.

Historic Barns of Connecticut

Barn Record Beacon Falls