Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 1/2 story, three-bay eave-entry barn with a gable roof; the ridge line is oriented north-south. The front eave-façade faces west and has a pair of swinging hinged doors in the center bay. Above the doors is a 15-light transom. Flanking the doors are six-pane stable windows at grade level in each of the end bays, and a pass-through door at the right (south) corner of the west eave-façade. The north gable-façade has two six-pane stable windows. The east eave-façade has no windows and a pass-through door near the center. The siding is unpainted vertical board-and-batten on the west and north facades, flush board vertical siding on the east-facade; the south facade cladding is unknown. The gable roof is covered asphalt shingles. A few courses of fieldstone foundation wall are visible near the northwest corner of the barn; there is a slight earthen ramp up to the doors.

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.

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Historical background:

The town of Ashford was incorporated in 1714 and for its first century had the typical scattered settlement on upland ridges which characterized nearly all of Connecticut. The economy was community-subsistence agriculture. Industry was limited to the mills of the agricultural economy – grist, saw, fulling mills.
In the early 19th century, turnpikes and improved roads, along with limited market-oriented agriculture, resulted in some local wealth and settlement nuclei at the major crossroads. Ashford Center, Westford, and Warrenville date from this period. So do the fancy Federal-style houses in these villages and along Route 89 (Mansfield Road) south of Warrenville. Also in this period there existed a short-lived glass factory at Westford.
In the 19th century, the lack of significant waterpower and railroad connections led to stagnation. Its peak population, 1820 (2,778) which had declined to 668 by 1910, was not exceeded until 1980.
In the early 20th century, the declining farms of Ashford were abandoned by their Yankee owners and sold to East European immigrants, notably Slovaks, Bohemians, and Hungarians (Magyars). This transformation of the rural countryside is one of the great stories of modern Connecticut. Today a large portion of the town is descended from these people (Clouette, Township Survey).

Field Notes

Associated house is c. 1800 Cape; also historic outhouse on site.

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• gentleman

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Garden
• Other
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Residential
• Rural
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

James Road is now a wooded area of old farmhouses, a short distance to the north of the center of Ashford where US Route 44 (formerly the main Boston-Hartford turnpike) passes through town. There is a square court between the barn and house to the west, edged on the east and south by a low fieldstone wall. A historic outhouse is located east of the barn.

Building Typology

• English

Materials

• Board & Batten
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam
• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

720 square feet

Date Compiled

02/19/2010

Compiled By

Charlotte Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Field notes and photographs by Barbara Metsack 12/09/2009.

Town of Ashford Assessor’s Record Map/Lot 25/ B/ 8 (house built 1790, 12.68 acres, barn 720 sf).

Bayles, Richard M.; History of Windham County, Connecticut, New York: W.W. Preston, 1889. excerpts available at

.

Clouette, Bruce, National Register of Historic Places, Church Farm, Nomination #270921, 1988. Item No. 88002650 NRIS (National Register Information System)  http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/88002650.pdf

Clouette, Bruce, Ashford Township Survey, handwritten manuscript, Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, 199x, Item X-8.

Cunningham, Janice, and Ransom, David; Back to the Land: Jewish Farms and Resorts in Connecticut 1890-1945, State of Connecticut Historical Commission and Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, 1998,186 pages.

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.