Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• State Historic Resource Inventory

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This structure is important as part of a barn complex related to the history of this property as a dairy farm. It contained two wagon bays on the west side; the east portion contains horse stalls. The Zutants had two workhorses.

This peak-roofed barn stands with its gable ends to the east and west. The underlying structure is a three-bay post-and-beam frame fitted with a combination of milled and hand-hewn framing members. Most of the joists supporting the haymow are hewn, or untrimmed logs. Three pair of hinged barn doors are located on the south side.

Historical significance:

Distinguished by the long shed or gable roof and the row of large openings along the eave side, the typical wagon shed was often built as a separate structure or as a wing connected to the farmhouse or the barn. These open-bay structures protect farm vehicles and equipment from the weather and provide shelter for doing small repairs and maintenance.

Historical background:

Built in 1883 for Anthony Newton, this house occupies the foundation of an earlier farmhouse that burned. (The earlier house shows on the 1859 Clark’s Atlas, but not on the 1874 Beers Atlas.) The house was sold by Walter Jones, after 43 years of ownership by the Jones family, to Anna and John Zutant (Zuntoct) in 1926 and remains in the family. Lithuanian immigrants, the Zutants immigrated separately to America in 1911, first settling in Waterbury (he c. 1910, and she in 1913), where the brass mills offered employment. They moved on to Northfield c. 1919 and owned the Asa Hopkins house on Campville Road prior to purchasing this property. That farm was sold to Anna’s brother, John Maiga, when the Zutants moved to the Anthony Newton house. Their new property on Fenn Road—the oldest surveyed road in Northfield—originally stretched back to the Thomaston Brook; Fenn Road, now a dead end, continued west. 

The Zutants owned a herd of about 30 Holsteins, and expanded the farm in 1950, buying the Fenn House on Newton Road (to the north). While John Zutant worked in the Plume and Atwood Rolling Mills in Thomaston, Anna ran the farm. Milk was delivered to the Fred J. Wood Dairy in Thomaston by horse and wagon, and in winter, by sled. A few restaurants and a handful of families were also customers. The Zutants supplied apples, blueberries and later, in the 1960s, Anna’s homemade sour cream and cheese to two Waterbury markets that served the Lithuanian community. There was also a thriving farmers’ market in Waterbury in the 1930s.

Field Notes

Materials: Vertical board (tongue and groove). Historic use: Wagon shed/horse barn.

Use (Historic)

• equestrian

Use (Present)

• storage

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn

Environment features

• Open Land
• Rural
• Scattered Buildings

Relationship to surroundings

The barn stands on the north side of Fenn Road Extension, and down the slope from the house. The cow barn is to the west and fields to the north.

Building Typology

• Wagon Shed

Materials

• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

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Structural System

• Post & Beam

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

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Roof type

• Gable

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Approximate Dimensions

30 x 13 1 story

Date Compiled

09/07/2008

Compiled By

Rachel Carley

Sources

Litchfield Tax Assessor Records
Interview with Olmstead family 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.