Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• State Historic Resource Inventory

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This structure, used for hay storage, is an important survivor of a larger complex that stood on this site and served the Kilravock Dairy operation of the Louis R. Ripley family.

This red-painted peak-roofed hay barn stands with its gable ends oriented to the north and south. The eaves overhang on all sides and the front, west gable end features a triangular hood extension at the roof peak. Double hinged rolling doors are centered at the ground level. The barn is raised slightly on granite blocks and approached by a drive on the west. The framework is built of milled lumber.

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 sides, 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.

Rather than hurriedly carting large loads of hay from distant fields to the main barn at harvesttime, farmers often found it easier to store New England’s leading crop near its source.  Field barns were used to store hay until it was needed during the winter.  By waiting until a good snow cover, farmers often found it easier to draw the hay by sled to the main barn to replace that consumed by the herd.  During the second half of the nineteenth century, farmers occasionally converted their older, obsolete English barns into field barns by moving them into fields.  Some of these field barns had formerly served as sheep barns during the sheep boom of the early nineteenth century.

Field Notes

Style: Gable-front barn. Materials: Vertical board siding. Historic use: Hay barn.

Use (Historic)

• storage

Use (Present)

• storage

---

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

• Barn
• Cupola

Environment features

• Open Land
• Rural
• Scattered Buildings

Relationship to surroundings

The hay barn stands on the east side of Duck Pond Road, to the west of the Kilravock Dairy barn. A driveway enters in front and loops north to the machine shop and calf barn. The Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Sanctuary offices are located to the southeast.

Building Typology

• New England

Materials

• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

---

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

---

Roof type

• Gable

---

Approximate Dimensions

28 x 32 1 story plus loft

Date Compiled

07/07/2008

Compiled By

Rachel Carley

Sources

Litchfield Tax Assessor Records
Interview with Laurel Ripley Galloway 7/07

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.