Church Farm Barn (396 Mansfield Road (Route 89), Ashford (Eastern Uplands))

Designations

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

The main barn is a 40’ x 90’ New England bank barn with horizontal clapboard siding, corner board trim, and a wood shingle roof with a hip-roofed cupola. The ridge runs east-west, with the large sliding door in the east gable-end, facing the rear of the dwelling house, which is located to the east near the road.
The south eave-side has a seven-bay basement level supported on six posts and the two field stone end foundation walls, with openings between, some partially closed in by half-height walls.
The north side has two ells projecting perpendicular to the main barn. The east ell is two stories, with an open carriage doorway adjacent to the main barn and a six-over-six double hung window flanked by two passage doors to the right (north). The north gable-end of this ell has a pair of six-over-six double hung windows in the ground floor and one in the upper level. Small three-light barn sash are in the upper level walls on both east and west sides. The west wall of this ell has a pair of six-over-six double hung windows; a shed addition off the main barn roof abuts the ell. The west ell is a one-story shed which appears to have a wide opening on the west wall. The west gable-end wall was not viewable.
The east gable-end of the main barn contains a wide and tall sliding door mounted at the interior of the barn. This door has nine panels, the top three and the center having nine-light glazing while the others appear to be tongue and groove board panels. In the upper level of the gable-end two six-over-six double hung windows flank the center below the eave line, and a pair of six-over-six double hung windows is centered below the peak at a higher attic level.
The cupola is square in plan, with a pair of louvered vents in each face and a steeply-pitched hip roof topped by a weather vane. The base of the cupola is of battered wood shingle surfaces splaying outward at a steep angle to intersect with the pitch of the main gable roof.
Attached to the west (rear) ell of the dwelling there is another gable-roofed wagon or carriage shed addition known as the “woodshed” with two openings in its south facade and a single passage door to the left (west) of the openings. The ground level of this shed is a half level below the first floor elevation of the dwelling.
The site overlooks a pond to the south of the barn, and open fields are located to the north, with woodland to the west. The current property includes nearly 30 acres; additional acreage formerly belonging to the farm now is conserved as part of the Joshua’s Trust.

Architectural significance:

New England Bank Barn:
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.
The 19th century also 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 on 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.

Wagon Shed Additions:
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.

Sliding doors came into wide use in the mid 19th century, either as original equipment or as replacements for hinged doors. Often the hardware and doors are mounted on the exterior with a shallow hood for protection. In some barns the doors and hardware are mounted at the interior.

Historical background:

The town of Ashford was incorporated in 1714 and for its first century had the typical scattered settlement on upland ridges which characterized nearly all of Connecticut. The economy was community-subsistence agriculture. Industry was limited to the mills of the agricultural economy – grist, saw, fulling mills.
In the early 19th century, turnpikes and improved roads, along with limited market-oriented agriculture, resulted in some local wealth and settlement nuclei at the major crossroads. Ashford Center, Westford, and Warrenville date from this period. So do the fancy Federal-style houses in these villages and along Route 89 (Mansfield Road) south of Warrenville. Also in this period there existed a short-lived glass factory at Westford.
In the 19th century, the lack of significant waterpower and railroad connections led to stagnation. Its peak population, 1820 (2,778) which had declined to 668 by 1910, was not exceeded until 1980.
In the early 20th century, the declining farms of Ashford were abandoned by their Yankee owners and sold to East European immigrants, notably Slovaks, Bohemians, and Hungarians (Magyars). This transformation of the rural countryside is one of the great stories of modern Connecticut. Today a large portion of the town is descended from these people.
Today Ashford remains a beautiful, scenic town. All roads are mostly scenic, with wooded, overgrown pastures (stone walls, young hardwoods) predominating (Clouette, Ashford survey).

Field Notes

National Register property, property of ESCU, easement held by CTHP. Sources: Bill Karosi, Chris Wigren, National Register Nomination #270921 Item No. 88002650 NRIS (National Register Information System) http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/88002650.pdf http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/88002650.pdf Quoted from the National Register Nomination: NR Item 7 Description (p. 2-3) Church Farm consists of a large hip-roof Federal-style dwelling built in 1821, a large barn built in 1895, and three smaller outbuildings. The buildings are located in a rural setting near the Ashford-Mansfield town line. The property is mostly open land, with meadows bounded by rail fences and fieldstone walls. Part of a farm of several hundred acres, the nominated parcel includes the buildings and 5 acres of adjacent meadow and former orchard extending north of the house. The southern boundary of the nominated parcel is a small pond just south of the house and barn (see sketch map and boundary description). ... Extending west from the rear of the house is a small 2 1/2-story ell which is believed to be an earlier house, built on the site in 1791. The north wall of the ell was built out at a subsequent date, and about 1890 a second story was added to the extension and the roof rebuilt to a very steep pitch (Photograph 3). Continuing the house still further westward is an old hewn-frame, 1 1/2-story building known as the woodshed; attached to the north side is a small structure which appears to have been a privy. ... West of the house is the large clapboarded barn (Photograph 6), called the "new barn" since its construction in 1895; it measures 90' long by 40' wide. The principal entrance to the barn is the large central opening on the east gable end (Photograph 8). The barn is surmounted by a cupola with paired rectangular louvers and a steep hip roof. The barn's interior has stanchions, horse-stalls, and small rooms for storing grain and harnesses. Trap doors from the upper-level hay lofts empty directly into feeding stations below. Appended to the north side of the barn is a 1 1/2-story wing containing an opening for one cart or wagon, a workshop, and billiard room finished with beaded wainscoting. At the rear of the barn is a board-sided open shed which appears to have been originally a separate building. The building count reflects the origin of the woodshed, privy, and rear shed now attached to the barn as separate buildings. ... NR Item 8. Statement of Significance (p. 4) Church Farm is also significant because it is related to two important chapters in the history of agriculture in eastern Connecticut (Criterion A). The house was associated with both the limited agricultural prosperity of the 1820s and with the gentleman farming of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historic Context: Given the tremendous migration from the state's farms in the early 19th century, it is somewhat misleading to speak of the 1820s as a time of agricultural prosperity. But for the larger landowners who could take advantage of changing conditions, it was a time when turnpikes and increased trade expanded markets for farm commodities, such as wool and dairy products. As a result, the eastern Connecticut countryside is dotted with large, stylish houses from the period. Although less ubiquitous than the vernacular dwellings of the 18th century, these substantial Federal-style houses represent the region's last phase of prosperity (outside of manufacturing villages) until modern times. ...

Use (Historic)

gentleman

Use (Present)

re-use

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

Mansfield Road crosses the southern part of Ashford, leading south into Mansfield. It is an area of some open fields, much woodland and wetlands along the Mt. Hope River, and scattered 19th-century farmhouses and 20th-century suburban homes. The Church Farm is located on the west side of Mansfield Road, and on the north bank of a pond. The 2-story house faces the road, with a 1-story wagon shed ell projecting from the southwest corner and extending westward. The main barn is located to the west of the house. To the north are some open fields surrounded by woodlands.

Building Typology

Materials

Structural System

Roof materials

Wood Shingle

Roof type

Gable

Approximate Dimensions

40' x 90' - wagon shed ell, cupola, 3192 square feet; wagon shed 600 square feet.

Date Compiled

12/28/2009

Compiled By

Charlotte Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs: William Karosi (8/12/2009), National Register Nomination (1988), Charlotte Hitchcock.
Town of Ashford Assessor’s Record, Parcel 50/A/1.

Bayles, Richard M.; History of Windham County, Connecticut, New York: W.W. Preston, 1889. excerpts available at

< http://www.connecticutgenealogy.com/windham/ashford.htm >

.

Clouette, Bruce, National Register of Historic Places Nomination #270921, 1988.
Item No. 88002650 NRIS (National Register Information System)
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/88002650.pdf
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/88002650.pdf

Clouette, Bruce, Ashford Township Survey, handwritten manuscript, Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, 199x.

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.

Historic Barns of Connecticut

Barn Record Ashford