Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• State Historic Resource Inventory
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This calving barn is significant as a last survivor from the once-formidable assemblage of structures that made up F. Ratchford Starr’s Echo Farm. Starr, a Philadelphia insurance executive, came to Litchfield in 1869 in search of a country home and began assembling parcels of land and old farms into a first-class dairy farm for purebred Jerseys.

This elongated peak-roofed bank barn is oriented with its gable ends to the east and west. The west gable end adjusts to grade so that the structure gains a story at the west end, where the fieldstone foundation is dug into the slope. The barn appears long and low from the south. Double doors are located near the eats end of the main, south façade, which is punctuated by an array of windows. A divided stable door and hinged loft doors are located on the west gable end, where a triangular hood holding the tackle for a hayfork projects at the upper level. Two metal ventilators rise from the roof ridge. The frame, of milled timbers, is nailed and bolted.

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 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 into 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.

Field Notes

Listed on the State Register of Historic Places 2/19/2014. Materials: Vertical board. Historic use: Calving barn. Style: Bank barn.

Use (Historic)

• animals, not listed

Use (Present)

• storage

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Moved

Related features

• Other

Environment features

• Open Land
• Rural
• Scattered Buildings

Relationship to surroundings

Barn stands on the north side of East Litchfield Road, about 100 yards back from the street and to the east of the house. Site slopes to the west. Lee’s Riding Stables located to the east.

Building Typology

• English Bank

Materials

• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

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Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

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Roof type

• Gable

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Approximate Dimensions

80 x 30 1 story plus lower level

Date Compiled

11/07/2008

Compiled By

Rachel Carley

Sources

Litchfield Tax Assessor Records
Interview with Fran Devlin 4/07
Archives, Litchfield Historical Society

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.