Barn Record Ashford
RETURN TO ‘FIND BARNS’- Building Name (Common)
- Part 1 of 2
- Building Name (Historic)
- n/a
- Address
- 150 Bebbington Road, Ashford
- Typology
- Overview
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Designations
n/a
Historic Significance
Architectural description:
This is a two-story wood-framed structure with a flat or very low-pitched shed roof. It is located to the north of the road and is oriented with its long side facing south. The south façade has a row of strip windows on each level, currently openings without glazing, across the eastern two-thirds of the façade. The western portion of the south façade has a barn door at the ground level and a small six-pane window and pass-through door on each level near the southwest corner. The upper level door currently opens to mid-air, as there is no stair access. The west façade has a single six-pane window centered on each level.
Siding is a mix of unpainted vertical and horizontal wood siding. The roof is roll or built-up roofing. The foundation is concrete block masonry.A second structure is located further to the north. This is a one-story flat-roofed structure with groupings of three windows alternating with pass-through doors in the south-facing façade. Siding is asphalt shingle and the roof is roll or built-up roofing. This building appears to be vacant.
Historical significance:
Poultry farming grew in popularity during the second half of the 19th century, and by the early 20th century most farms had small chicken coops. These lightly-built structures often feature a gabled or shed roof and large windows on the south side. Often chicken coops have a small stove and chimney for heat to protect young chicks during cold weather. Small openings near the ground provide the fowl with access to the yard. Inside are nesting boxes for the laying hens. During the 1930s and 1940s, poultry farming was adopted by many farmers in New England as a replacement for dairy farming.
By the 1930s, large two-and three-story poultry barns were being built for raising broilers and capons for meat and pullets for eggs. These often have a shallow-pitched gable or shed roof and many windows on the south side, which are often covered with wire mesh. Mineral-surfaced asphalt paper or shingles typically cover the roof and walls. Housing thousands of birds, these large structures became virtual factories, with automatic, clock-activated feeders and waterers to reduce labor.
Field Notes
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).
- Use & Accessibility
- Environment
Related features
Environment features
Relationship to surroundings
Bebbington Road runs along a ridge with land sloping down to the northwest and southeast. The area is mostly wooded with some open pasture land, and several farms with large extant poultry houses.
- Typology & Materials
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Building Typology
Materials
Structural System
Roof materials
Roof type
Approximate Dimensions
1200 square feet
- Source
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Date Compiled
03/08/2010
Compiled By
Charlotte Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust
Sources
Photographs by Joseph Szalay - 09/17/2009
Town of Ashford Assessor’s Record Map/Lot 41/ A/ 2/ (house built 1936, 17 acres, Pole Barn 7980 S.F., Coop 1200 S.F.).
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, Church Farm, 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.
Cunningham, Janice, and Ransom, David; Back to the Land: Jewish Farms and Resorts in Connecticut 1890-1945, State of Connecticut Historical Commission and Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, 1998,186 pages.
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.
- PhotosClick on image to view full file
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