Barn Record Roxbury

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Building Name (Common)
Voytershark Farm
Building Name (Historic)
Voytershark Farm
Address
85 Painter Ridge Road, Roxbury
Typology
Overview

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 2 1/2 story stable barn that has been adaptively re-used for housing. The main gable-facade faces southeast and the ridgeline of the barn is parallel to Painter Ridge Road, which runs approximately northwest to southeast. The original main entries are a set of three overhead garage doors (the current main entry appears to be a small cross-gable gothic-roofed addition that faces the road). Centered above the middle of the garage doors of the southeast is a sliding haydoor, with its track extending towards the east. An arched window is in the attic level and is flanked by two small window openings, now boarded.  The roofline on the gable facades are Gothic gambrel with with a slight dutch flair. The eave-facades has a series of windows set in clapboards, that extend from the eave to the basement, which is concrete masonry; the southeast gable-facade is clad entirely in clapboards. The northwest gable-facade has a relatively new addition which mostly glass. Above the addition are a row of five, fixed six-pane windows. The roof has asphalt shingles and is topped with three metal ventilators.

Historical significance:

By the early 20th century agricultural engineers developed a new approach to dairy barn design: the ground-level stable barn, to reduce the spread of tuberculosis bacteria by improving ventilation, lighting, and reducing the airborne dust of manure. A concrete slab typically serves as the floor for the cow stables. Many farmers converted manure basements in older barns into ground-level stables with concrete floors. Some older barns were jacked up and set on new first stories to allow sufficient headroom. With the stables occupying the entire first story, the space above serves a a hayloft. By the 1920s most ground-level stable barns were being constructed with lightweight balloon frames using two-by-fours or two-by-sixes for most of the timbers. Tongue-and-groove beveled siding is common on the walls, although asbestos cement shingles also were a popular sheathing. Some barns have concrete for the first-story walls, either poured in place or built up out of blocks. The gambrel roof design was universally accepted as it enclosed a much greater volume than a gable roof did, and its shape could be formed with trusses.

Adaptive re-use is generally defined as preserving a building by converting it to a use other than the original one.

Field Notes

Information from a survey of Roxbury by Rachel Carley. In Roxbury, there is a big gambrel roofed bank barn on Painter Ridge Road, built by the Voytershark family for one of the last dairy herds here, when the federal government took the historic family barn for one of the SAGE system warning towers during the early years of the Cold War. It's huge, which suggests the lingering confidence of the farmers, or the government largess. The Roxbury Historic District Commission just recognized the current owner, a sculptor, with a prize for his sensitive renovation of the space into a home and studio. Elderly members of the farm family are still in the neighborhood. Bud Voytershark (the 83 year old framer who's family built the barn) gave this account of the process to Joel Finn: The Voytersharks bought the farm in 1955. At that time, there was a one-story barn on the property that had been built shortly before World War II. That barn was 300 feet long and had stanchions for 180 cows. It was built by Wyant Co. in Washington, CT. (Wyant is still in business, on Bee Brook Road in Washington.) The "new" barn (the one you saw) was built by the same company, using designs by Starline Barn Equipment of Harvard, Illinois. The new barn, according to Bud, is 220 feet long (imagine: the old barn was even bigger !) and had stanchions for ONLY 90 cows. There is a two-story building next door to the current barn that was the hay storage for the previous barn. That structure was attached to the previous barn (indicating how short a distance was required for the barn to be moved.) A landmark on Painter Ridge, this long, barrel-shaped barn was built in 1962 by Rob Wyatt for Bud and Frank Voytershark. The building, since remodeled as a residence, originated as the dairy barn for the Voytersharks’ herd of Guernseys and Holsteins. The Voytershark brothers began farming at the Picketts’ at 167 Painter Hill Road shortly after World War II, then bought their farm on Painter Ridge in the mid-1950s from Bill Fuller. They first used a dairy barn that stood across the road on the east side of Painter Ridge Road, which had been part of the Mitchell Farm. That barn was torn down by the Connecticut Light & Power Co. in 1962 to make way for high-tension wires, and the Voytersharks rebuilt here on the west side of the road. The barn, which they used until 1994, is significant as one of the last major dairy barns to be built in Roxbury. The building is particularly notable for its Gothic gables, shaped as pointed arches, which produce a rounded roof profile for the long, low-slung building. A type known for is blue color, the Harvestore silo is made of vitrified steel plates, designed to be impermeable by the acids produced by silage and other feeds. Pressure sacks limit decomposition by inhibiting oxygen leaks. Harvestores were first produced in the 1940s by the S.O. Smith Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This type of silo is loaded from the top and unloaded from the bottom. The foundation for a second silo is located just to the north. The small wing intersecting with the east façade was the milk house. The barn stands on the west side of Painter Ridge Road, with fields spread to the west with distant views. Features include: 220 x 36; silo 640 diameter x height; gothic-roofed barn stands with gable ends to the north and south; long horizontal, barrel-shaped profile; primary façade faces east; roof slopes to low elevation walls, clad in drop siding; row of 6-pane window sash; one story wing with Gothic roof intersects with east façade, off-center to north; double-ended stair; three steel cupolas; one-story wing to north (curved roof); concrete foundation; blue steel silo at southeast corner; drop siding; wood frame; white paint. -Rachel D. Carley

Use & Accessibility

Use (Historic)

Use (Present)


Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Environment

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

This large barn situated in the middle of a large cleared field is visible from quite a great distance.  Even up close, though, it is hard to tell that it is no longer an active dairy barn.

Typology & Materials

Building Typology

Materials


Structural System

Roof materials


Roof type


Approximate Dimensions

Barn: 35 x 220, Silo: 640 diameter x height.

Source

Date Compiled

05/10/2010

Compiled By

Todd Levine, reviewed by the Connecticut Trust

Sources

Photographs and field notes by James Sexton, PhD. - 8/24/2006.
Additional field notes by Rachel D. Carley - 8/4/2011.
Additional photographs by Melissa Antonelli - 2/6/2008.
Additional photographs by Charlotte Hitchcock - 10/25/2011.

Carley, Rachel D., Barn Stories from Roxbury Connecticut, Roxbury Historic District Commission/Town of Roxbury/CT Commission on Culture & Tourism, 2010.

Cunningham, Jan, Roxbury, A Historic and Architectural Survey, Roxbury Historic District Commission, 1996-97.

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, 213 pages.

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