Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• Local Historic District
• National Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This 1 ½ story connected side or eave-entry barn has a saltbox-roof addition on the rear eave-end. The main facade faces Chaplin Street and has a sliding door mounted on an exterior track. In the top right corner, above the door, there are three six-paned windows with casing and are separated by mullions. To the left of the door is a twelve-over-twelve double hung sash window. The right gable-end has wood shingle siding. The left gable-end of the barn is attached to the house and at the point of intersection there is a twelve-over-twelve double hung sash window.
The barn has asphalt shingles and vertical siding. The right gable-end and the left side of the main facade both have wood shingles that are painted white.

Historical significance:

Connected barns tied all of the functions of a farmstead - home, hearth, workplace and barn - into a series of linked buildings. This is the “big house, little house, back house, barn” of nursery rhymes.

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

-associated house 1840 -used for horse National Register and Local Historic District.

Use (Historic)

• equestrian

Use (Present)

• storage

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn

Environment features

• Residential

Relationship to surroundings

Main facade faces Chaplin Street. Attached to ell of house.

Building Typology

• Connected

Materials

• Vertical Siding
• Wood Shingle

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Structural System

• Post & Beam

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

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Roof type

• Gable

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Approximate Dimensions

n/a

Date Compiled

12/01/2009

Compiled By

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

Sources

Photographs and Field Notes by Catherine Lynch and Hill Bullard - 12/01/2009.

Town of Chaplin Assessor’s Records: (Book 62 Page 79, Account Number: A000420, MBLU : 75/9)

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

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.
Catherin Lynch and Hill Bullard

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