Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 2 1/2-story gable-entry barn with sliding doors on both the west gable-end and the south eave-side corner. It is covered in horizontal clapboards painted red and has a number of windows along the eave side. There is a single cupola on the west side ridge of the asphalt shingled roof. There is a portion on the hay track projecting from underneath the gable peak apex and just under that a window where the hay door would have been.

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 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 first ventilators were simple louvered wooden boxes with gable roofs, mounted near the ridge of the barn. The successor to the ventilator was the more decorative cupola. Coinciding with the Italianate style of domestic architecture popular during the mid-nineteenth century, the room sized cupola, embellished with decorative brackets and a copper weathervane, became a symbol of modern farming during the early Victorian era. The object of the cupola is to protect the opening of the flue from the elements, keep out birds, prevent back drafts as far as possible, and assist in drawing the foul air from the barn. The cupola was replaced in the early twentieth century by the factory-produced steel ventilator, symbolizing another step in the movement towards an industrial approach to farming. 

Field Notes

House dates from 1768, barn and 2 sheds, garage, 5 acre property consisting of 2 non-adjacent parcels. Located at the corner of Main Street across Ripley Hill from Coventry High School.

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Cupola
• Garage
• Garden
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Commercial
• Open Land
• Residential
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

Ripley Hill Road extends north from Main Street (Route 31) northwest of the location of the town government services and high school. A few historic farm sites remain while most have re-grown as second growth forests or have been subdivided with typical cul-de-sac roads lined by late 20th-century homes. This 5.26-property is located at the northwest corner of Main Street and Ripley Hill Road. The house is a 2 1/2-story c. 1768 Colonial oriented with its ridge-line north-south and its entry facing east to Ripley Hill Road. The east side is a five-bay facade with the door at the center. Two massive chimneys are located on either side of the center hall in the interior of the structure. A 1-story ell extends west from the rear eave-side. The principal barn is located to the north, also with its ridge-line parallel to Ripley Hill Road. A driveway enters the site north of the house and south of the barn. There are several other outbuildings. A horse shed is east of the barn; the two structures are connected by a stone-walled paddock. A three-bay gable-roofed garage connected to a 1-story gable-roofed shed or cottage is located southwest of the barn at the end of the driveway. A 1 1/2-story able-roofed cottage is located west of the main house.

Building Typology

• New England

Materials

• Clapboard

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

Barn 30' x 50 ' with 8' x 11' attached shed and 18' x 36' attached leanto. Shed 16' x 22.5 '.

Date Compiled

07/29/2009

Compiled By

Todd Levine, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs by Charlotte R. Hitchcock & Julie Rosen

Assessor’s Record and GIS Viewer: http://ceo.fando.com/coventry/find.aspx?service=Coventry  
Parcel ID: 0017 0032 0008 5.27 acres House date 1768
Barn 1story 1560.00 sf

Aerial Mapping:
http://maps.google.com
http://www.bing.com/maps accessed 6/30/2011.

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.