1117 Main Street (Rte 31), Coventry (Eastern Uplands)

Designations

National Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 1/2-story gable-roofed carriage house, its ridge-line oriented north-south perpendicular to the street, with vertical siding. The north gable-end has two garage door openings at grade. The remains of lintel trim from earlier openings on the wall above suggest that originally a central barn door was flanked by windows. The east bay has been covered in vertical siding and has a pass-through door at the center; the west bay has a modern overhead garage door. Above the first floor and under the apex is a large, sixteen-pane round-arched window. The barn is painted deep red and has blue detailing, particularly framing the window, the roof, the garage doors and the quoins. The west eave side has a six-over-six double hung window as well as three small hatches, apparently for ventilation. Grade slopes down toward the south; the south gable end has a single a six-over-six double hung window under the apex and a serrated girt line. The stone foundation is exposed along the south and east sides. The east eave-side has five double hung windows in the main level. The basement level is open for the northern 2/3 of the building’s length, supported by posts. A stone retaining wall aligned with the east wall continues north supporting the driveway which accesses the north main level. The roof is covered in asphalt shingles and is topped with a cupola. The cupola has a flared hip roof with overhanging soffits supported by decorative brackets. Arch-topped louvered openings are on all four sides.

Historical significance:

Until the 1830’s, the horses used for riding and driving carriages were often kept in the main barn along with the other farm animals. By the 1850’s, some New England farmers built separate horse stables and carriage houses. Early carriage houses were built just to shelter a carriage and perhaps a sleigh, but no horses. The pre-cursor to the twentieth-century garage, these outbuildings are distinguished by their large hinged doors, few windows, and proximity to the dooryard. The combined horse stable and carriage house continued to be a common farm building through the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, until automobiles became common.

The first ventilators were simple wooden louvered boxes with gable roofs, mounted near the ridge of the barn. The successor to the ventilator was the more romantic 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.

Historical background:

19th-century barn/garage is a contributing resource to the South Coventry Historic District:
“Several outbuildings display some sophistication in design, evident particularly in the louvered cupolas with bracketed overhanging roofs.”

Field Notes

Victorian carriage barn on the property of No. 1117 Main Street. Side elevation is visible from Mason Street. Owner's note: This barn was painted well before the house next door at 1129 was painted. The house at 1117 Main was painted to match our barn in reverse...The house is two colors of blue with burgandy trim and the barn is burgundy with the blues as trim colors.

Use (Historic)

carriage barn

Use (Present)

garage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

The site is located on the south side of Main Street east of the intersection with Mason Street, in the village of South Coventry. Main Street heads roughly east-west, paralleling Mill Brook which runs on the south side of the street, and was the source of water power for a series of 19th-century mills. This area is lined with residential and commercial uses including churches, the town library, and several antique shops.

The associated house is a 2 ½-story 19th-century Italianate to Queen Anne-style building with its ridge-line oriented north-south perpendicular to the street. An unusual feature is a chimney in the north gable-end facing the street, in the center of three bays. The attic gable is an ornamented pediment topped by the chimney as it emerges from the roof ridge. The main entry is in the angle between the main block and an east-side projecting gabled wing with a turret. A 1-story porch covers the entry area. This house is set near the east property line. The carriage barn is near the west property line, closer to the adjacent house. The 2-acre property extends southward to the bank of Mill Brook and slopes down toward the south. A driveway from the street extends south to the north facade of the carriage barn.

Approximate Dimensions

1152 square feet

Date Compiled

06/30/2011

Compiled By

T. Levine, C. Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs by Charlotte R. Hitchcock & Julie Rosen 08/24/2009.

Town of Coventry Assessor’s Record and GIS Viewer: http://ceo.fando.com/coventry/find.aspx?service=Coventry
Parcel ID: 00N/0064/0002
Acres: 1.99 Barn w/bsm&lft 1152.00 sf House c. 1850

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

Andrews, Gregory, and Lewis, Barbara, Historic and Architectural Resources Survey of Coventry: the Coventry Village Area, 1980.

Andrews, Gregory E., South Coventry National Register Historic District Nomination No. 91000482, National Park Service, 1991.

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 Coventry