Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• State Historic Resource Inventory

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This barn housed the Curtiss’s two work horses and a carriage on the main floor. The upper level was the haymow; hay drops allowed the farmers to fork the hay to the horses below. The foundation was shored up with concrete in the 1960s.

This peak-roofed barn stands with its gable ends oriented to the east and west. The post-and-beam frame, of chestnut and oak, is notable for the hand-hewn posts and plates; the rafters are milled, and there is no ridge pole. The original chestnut floorboards in the loft are intact, as is the hay grapple. The entrance is located on the east end of the south façade.

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.

Field Notes

Materials: Vertical board (tongue and groove). Barn Built circa 1840. Presently used for storage of hay. Hay mow held up with cribbing. Interested in preserving. Property has been in family since 1830's.

Use (Historic)

• equestrian

Use (Present)

• storage

---

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

n/a

Environment features

• Open Land
• Rural

Relationship to surroundings

Barn stands to the northwest of the house on the north side of Goodwin Hill Road; open land spreads to north and east. A corrugated-metal clad pole barn stands immediately to the west and a tool shed to the south. The cow barn is located to the east.

Building Typology

• English

Materials

• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

---

Structural System

• Post & Beam

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

---

Roof type

• Gable

---

Approximate Dimensions

30.5 x 23 1 story plus loft

Date Compiled

10/07/2008

Compiled By

Rachel Carley

Sources

Litchfield Tax Assessor Records
Interview with Ed and Sara Gadomski, 10/07

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.