Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• Local Historic District
• National Register
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 ½ story, three-bay, side- or eave-entry bank barn with a gable-roofed addition. The barn faces approximately east with its ridge line running north-south. The main entrance, on the east eave-side, is a pair of hinged doors in the center bay with a projecting hood above. In the north bay, right of the hinged doors, is a pass-through door. The south bay is blank. The one-story gable-roofed addition projects off the northern-most corner of the north bay on the east eave-facade.

The south gable-end has a basement level open at a lower grade, with an interior sliding door and a hood above. The main level is blank. Above the dropped girt line siding divide on the south gable-end is a fixed six-paned window centered in the attic gable.

The west eave-side appears to have a pair of hinged doors centered on the facade, opening to grade at the main level. The remaining bays are blank. There is a series of single paned windows on the basement level of the west eave-facade in the un-mortared field stone foundation. The north gable-end has a fixed six-pane window centered high in the attic gable.

The gable-roofed addition has two pass-through doors in the east gable-facade.

The barn has vertical siding that is painted red with a wood shingled roof and an un-mortared fieldstone foundation.

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.

The 19th century saw the introduction of a basement under the barn to allow for the easy collection and storage of a winter’s worth of manure from the animals sheltered within the building.

The bank barn is characterized by the location of its main floor above grade, either through building into a hillside or by raising the building on a foundation. This innovation, aided by the introduction of windows for light and ventilation, would eventually be joined by the introduction of space to shelter more animals under the main floor of the barn.

Field Notes

This building is one of the oldest barns still standing in the state. While it has been thoroughly reworked over its long lifetime the Stiles barn still retains many of the characteristics that one would expect to see from a Colonial barn. This history is made all the more potent by the barn's siting near an 18th century Stiles house and the fact that it remains on a farm still worked by descendants of the builder.

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• storage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Moved

Related features

• Active Agriculture
• Barn
• Complex
• Fields
• Other
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Active Agriculture
• Open Land
• Residential
• Rural
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The barn sits close to the road and near the mid-18th century Stiles house at the edge of an area farmed by the family from the 17th century to the present. The barn faces east, parallel to main street with stone walls surrounding the property. Stiles Pond is located across the road to the east, and its outlet runs between this property and the adjacent property to the south, also historically a Stiles family farm.
Main Street North from this location south to the town center, is a historic district where the streetscape retains the density and most of the structures of the 18th and 19th centuries, including a significant number of early barns, which contribute to the rural village atmosphere.

Building Typology

• English Bank

Materials

• Fieldstone
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam

Roof materials

• Wood Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

36x24,24x24(add), 13'6"x12'(ell)

Date Compiled

06/08/2010

Compiled By

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

Sources

Photographs and field notes by James Sexton, PhD.

Town of Southbury Assessor’s Record Map 3512 Block 37 / 3  
Southbury GIS viewer   http://cogcnvgis.com/  accessed 10/07/2010

http://www.bing.com/maps/  accessed 10/07/2010

Luyster, Constance, Southbury No. 1 National Register District Nomination No. 71000917, National Park Service, 1971.

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.

Local Historic District - Southbury Historic District No. 1, 1967.