Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• Local Historic District
• National Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This 1 ½ story attached eave-entry barn’s main facade faces east to Chaplin Street. The east facade has two window openings centered between the dropped girt line and the eave. One window opening is centered above the hinged doors and the other is off center between the pass-through door and hinged door. The pass-through door is made of vertical siding and is painted grey. The south facade has two fixed six-pane windows and a board-and-batten pass-through door that has been painted white. Beneath the ridge line on the south facade there appears to be a nine-over-three double-hung window. The barn has board-and-batten siding that is painted white and an asphalt shingle roof.

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.

Historical background:

The Chaplin Historic District is an entire village built between 1815 and 1840, standing today in complete integrity, free of intrusions. The church, tavern, Town Hall, store and nineteen houses in late Federal and early Greek Revival styles provide a unique example of the architecture and ambience of a New England village - entirely constructed in a compressed period of time a century and a half ago, and unaltered since that time.
Connecticut has many villages which are older than Chaplin and many towns founded earlier than Chaplin in which can be traced continuing architectural and community developments from a century or more before through a century or more after the fabric demonstrated by Chaplin. Chaplin is unique because it was created on site where before there had been no settlement, was created complete in a brief span of time, and subsequently has experienced no development or changes. Chaplin provides a unique record of the architecture and community planning of the 1820’s and 1830’s (Ransom, p. 7).

Field Notes

Local Historic District. Associated house built in 1865. There is also a barn on Tower Hill opposite #4 Tower Hill Road. Street address of property on Chaplin Street.

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• storage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn

Environment features

• Residential
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

This connected barn is attached to the house with which it is associated. The site is a corner lot at the intersection of Chaplin Street, which runs approximately north-south to the east of the site and Tower Hill Road, which runs east-west to the north of the site. The area surrounding the site is light residential and woodland.

Building Typology

• Connected

Materials

• Board & Batten
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

22'6"L x 20' W

Date Compiled

12/30/2009

Compiled By

T. Levine and S. Lessard, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs by Catherine Lynch, Hill Bullard and Charlotte Hitchcock.

Field Notes by Catherine Lynch and Hill Bullard 11/25/2009.

Ransom, David, Chaplin National Register Historic District Nomination, No. 78002856, National Park Service, 1978.

Visser, Thomas D.,Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, University Press of New England,1997.

Works Progress Administration Writers’ Project, Architectural Survey, Census of Old Buildings, Reference Group 33, Box 226 “Bolton-Chaplin,” Hartford: Connecticut State Library Archives.

http://www.bing.com/maps/ 7/12/2011.