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Architectural description:
This is a side or eave-entry barn with a shed-roofed addition. The main facade faces south towards Plain Hill Road, which runs approximately east-west. The main entrance is a series of exterior sliding doors on a track that spans the entire eave-facade. The west gable-facade has a pair of two-pane windows. The north eave-facade has the shed-roofed addition, which is open on the west side. The east gable-facade has a fieldstone foundation, partially mortared, spanning the entire facade and up to about the six foot mark. The barns has vertical siding painted red, except for the sliding doors, which are metal painted red. The roof is unpainted metal.
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. In this case, the barn has multiple bays.
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Yes
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Unknown
This barn appears to be the oldest on a site with multiple barns in active agriculture. The barn abuts the road. Behind the barn is no less than five large pole barns and a large cement silo. the farm house associated with the farm is off to the east.
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02/18/2010
Todd Levine, reviewed by the Connecticut Trust
Photographs by Sprague Historical Society
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.