Historic Significance
Architectural description:
This is a 1 ½-story gable entry barn with a hyphen off the north eave-side connecting to the main house. The main façade faces east and the ridge-line of the barn is perpendicular to Conantville Road, which at this point runs approximately north to south curving northwest to Meadowbrook Lane. The main entry appears to be a single side-hinged door off-enter to the north on the main east gable-façade. Set back to the north of the east gable-façade is the hyphen connecting the barn to the 1 ½-story main house further north. The hyphen has a pair of side-hinged doors adjacent to the north corner of the east gable-façade of the barn. Further north along the hyphen is a double-hung window, this appears to be where the internal separation between the barn half of the structure and the residential half is. There is a twenty-pane window centered on the east gable-façade of the barn. There is a four-pane bulls-eye window near the apex of the east gable-façade of the barn. The south eave-side of the barn has five evenly spaced single-pane windows. The west gable-end has a centered six-over-six double-hung window, adjacent to the north side of the window is a single side-hinged door. To the north of the west gable-end is the continuation of the hyphen. Along the northern half of the hyphen is a double-hung window followed by a door, this appears to be where the internal separation between the barn half of the structure and the residential half is. The barn is covered in clapboard painted red with red corner boards, white cornice boards and white trim. The roof is covered in asphalt shingles.
Historical significance:
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. With the main drive floor running parallel to the ridge, the size of the barn could be increased to accommodate larger herds by adding additional bays to the rear gable end. 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, as both types continued to be built.
Connected barns tied all of the functions of a farmstead - home, hearth, workplace and barn - into a series of linked buildings. This is the "big house, little house, back house, barn" of nursery rhymes.
Field Notes
Not Listed on Mansfield Historical List But I think this an attached barn on an Historical House in one of Mansfield's oldest manufacturing locales