Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural Description:

This is a 1½ story, three-bay, side- or eave-entry bank barn. The barn faces north with its ridgeline running east- west, perpendicular to Cow Hill Road. The main entrance is a pair of double-height hinged doors in the middle bay of the north eave-facade. The east and west bays on the east eave-facade are blank.

The east gable-facade has a pair of single-height hinged doors on the north half of the facade. In the southern-most corner is a hinged pass-through door.

On the south eave-facade, the grade slopes down to the west, exposing the west bay’s basement level. Off center in the basement of the west bay is a grouping of three windows. The western-most window appears to have eight panes while the middle and eastern-most windows appear to have six panes. The un-mortared fieldstone foundation is exposed by the change in grade in the east and middle bay on the south eave-facade. In the middle bay on the first floor is a pair of double-height hinged doors. The hinged doors are elevated above grade level, built up on the fieldstone foundation. Centered above the hinged doors is a fixed twelve-pane window. There is a pair of fixed six-pane windows off-center in the east bay of the south eave-facade.

On the west gable-facade is a pair of single-height, hinged doors on the southern-most half of the basement level. The west gable-facade’s basement level has unpainted vertical siding while the rest of the facade has wood shingles. On the northern-most half of the basement level is a pair of fixed twelve-pane windows. The main floor of the west gable-facade is blank with the exception of a slight flared reveal in the shingles at the girt line.

The barn has unpainted wood shingles and appears to be built up on an un-mortared fieldstone foundation, built into the grade. The exposed basement level on the west gable-facade has unpainted vertical siding. The south eave-facade’s basement level has unpainted wood shingles in the west bay. The barn has a gable roof with asphalt shingles and a slight overhang.

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 English bank barn is nestled behind a colonial house which is said to be 300 years old. It is wood shingled. there is another smaller barn like bldg behind this one.

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Residential
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The barn faces north with its ridgeline running east- west, perpendicular to Cow Hill Road. Fieldstone retaining walls on the northwest corner are supporting the change in grade on the south eave-facade, east of the west bay’s exposed basement. The barn is west of the associated house in a residential area. There are stonewalls north of the barn with woodlands northwest and southwest of the barn. There appears to be a scattered building or a barn-like structure northwest of the barn.

Building Typology

• English Bank

Materials

• Fieldstone
• Vertical Siding
• Wood Shingle

Structural System

n/a

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

BRN4: 1 STY LFT&BSMT---1260 S.F. SHD1: SHED FRAME--- 416 S.F.

Date Compiled

07/13/2010

Compiled By

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

Sources

Assessor’s Online Database. Account Number:M0399700, MBLU :19/ 2/ 20/ / /.

, 7/14/2010.

PHotographs and field notes by JoAnna Chapin (joannachapin13@gmail.com)- 2/4/2010

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.