Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• Local Historic District
• National Register
• State Historic Resource Inventory
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 2 story gable-entry bank barn with a shed-roofed addition off of the northern-most corner of the east eave-facade. The barn faces south with its ridge line running north-south. The main entry, off-center on the south gable-facade, appears to be an interior sliding door with a fifteen-over-fifteen-pane transom above. There are four evenly spaced fixed eight-pane windows above the sliding door and a pair of fixed eight-pane windows off-center below the apex in the attic gable. West of the sliding door on the south gable-facade is a grouping of four fixed six-pane windows on the first floor with two evenly spaced fixed six-pane windows on the second floor. East of the sliding door is a grouping of three fixed six-pane windows on the first floor with one fixed six-pane window above in the second floor. In the southern-most corner, on the first floor of the east eave-facade is a fixed ten-pane window. North of the window is a fixed six-pane window that is between two pass-through doors. Continuing north on the east eave-facade is a second fixed ten-pane window and two fixed six-pane windows. In the southern-most corner of the east eave-facade is a pass-through door followed by a grouping of three fixed six-pane windows. Above the siding divide, on the second floor of the east eave-facade there are ten evenly spaced, fixed six-pane windows. The west eave-facade is built into the grade providing entry to the basement level.

The south eave-facade of the shed-roofed addition has a pass-through door in the western-most corner. There are two fixed six-pane windows east of the door. Centered above each window on the south eave-facade is a fixed six-pane window below the eave. The barn has vertical siding that is painted red with the siding on the south gable-facade weathered and stripped of its paint. The barn has a tin roof and a gable-roofed cupola with two windows on the eave-facades and one window on the gable-facades. There is a concrete masonry block chimney above the eave, off-center on the roof of the east eave-facade.

Historical significance:

The New England barn or gable front barn was the successor to the English barn and relies on a gable entry rather than an entry under the eaves. The gable front offers many practical advantages. Roofs drain off the side, rather than flooding the dooryard. With the main drive floor running parallel to the ridge, the size of the barn could be increased to accommodate larger herds by adding additional bays to the rear gable end. Although it was seen by many as an improvement over the earlier side-entry English Barn, the New England barn did not replace its predecessor but rather coexisted with it. The 19th century also 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 on 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

Barn faces Old Hall Road while the house faces Norwich Worcester Turpike (Route 169) Located in the Woodstock Hill Historic District. This is quite a large barn for a village center. At one point during the 1960s or 1970s the barn was converted to studio and space for recent art school graduates. Remanants of other outbuildings can be seen around the property. The house recently been thoroughly studied by Old Sturbridge address.village. The barn is #149 on the OS

Use (Historic)

• dairy

Use (Present)

• storage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

No

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

• Complex
• Cupola
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Open Land
• Residential
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The barn faces south with its rear gable-facade facing north to Old Hall Road. The associated house is southeast of the barn. There are scattered buildings south of the barn and open land west of the barn.

Building Typology

• New England Bank

Materials

• Concrete Block
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle
• Tin

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

38x80

Date Compiled

06/15/2010

Compiled By

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

Sources

Photographs and field notes by James Sexton, PhD - 5/2/2007.

Additional photographs by Charlotte Hitchcock - 8/10/2010.

Clouette Bruce and Tinh Hoang, Woodstock Hill Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 98001578 NRIS, National Park Service, 1998 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/98001578.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/98001578.pdf.

Inventory of Properties, Woodstock Hill Historic District Study Report, The Woodstock Hill Study Group and The Woodstock Historic Districts Study Committee, 1995, SHPO Library, Hartford.

Mott, John A.; White, Frank G. ; Barns of New England, Old Sturbridge Village Research Paper, 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.