Barn Record Bloomfield

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Building Name (Common)
4-H Education Center at Auer Farm - Part 1 of 2
Building Name (Historic)
Benvenuto Farm/Auerback Farm Mushroom Barn
Address
4 Auer Farm Road, Bloomfield
Typology
Overview

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 2-story gable-entry barn with a monitor roof. Its ridge-line runs east-west. The barn is on a hillside that declines from east to west. The main east gable-end is above grade and has a centered metal-lined doorway with a concrete lintel and a thin square chimney on the barn’s southeast corner. Except for the chimney, the south eave-side is blank. The west gable-end has a pair of centered wooden double doors topped by a concrete lintel. The north eave-side is blank. The walls and chimney are made of NATCO Conduit Tile masonry. The circular chimney end is clay. The monitor roof consists of a gable with a louvered monitor ventilator encompassing the entire gable ridge. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles.

The barn has a dirt floor. The lower interior half of one wall has a network of pipes. The barn contains machinery stamped “cultivation/sorting/processing” machinery made by Friends Manufacturing Co., Gasport, NY, wood storage bin, and other wooden structures that may be related to apple processing.


Historical significance:

The mushroom barn is a very rare barn type found in Connecticut. It’s main goal is to keep mushrooms in the dark and at a constant temperature.

A shed is typically a simple, single-story structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop. Sheds vary considerably in the complexity of their construction and their size, from small open-sided tin-roofed structures to large wood-framed sheds with shingled roofs, windows, and electrical outlets. Sheds used on farms or in industry can be large structures.


Historical background:

http://www.auerfarm.org/about_auer_farm_education_center_history.php

One researcher found photo documentary evidence that the barn was converted to apple processing by 1949. (Background and Secondary Research on “Mushroom House” at Auer Farm, 2007.)

Today’s 120-acre 4-H Education Center at Auer Farm, located in the northwest section of Bloomfield, Connecticut was deeded to the non-profit Connecticut 4-H Development Fund, Inc. in 1976. The farm, as the 4-H Education Center, is committed to growing its successful educational programs and community outreach efforts on this historic community resource.

The farm, founded in the early years of the 20th century, was honored as a model farm in 1950 and was the site for the annual Connecticut Farm Conference in the late 1940s and 1950s. The driving force for the long-term success of the farm was Beatrice Fox Auerbach. When her husband died in 1927, two years after buying the farm, she took control despite no knowledge of farming.

For 40 years she managed what became the 230-acre Auer Farm with three production divisions: a dairy with 60 purebred Guernsey cows, poultry with more than 20,000 chickens and apples on more than 300 trees. Both the dairy barns and poultry houses used the latest technology. Milk was processed on the farm. Milk, eggs and other farm products were sold at the G. Fox Department Store. Nine homes on the property housed farm families and a dormitory housed seasonal employees.

Dignitaries from throughout the country, including Eleanor Roosevelt, visited the farm and were impressed by the quality of the crops and animal production. Farmers from abroad came to learn modern practices for use in their countries. Besides running the farm, Mrs. Auerbach achieved national prominence in the 1930s as the first female president of a leading department store, G. Fox & Co. Her good business sense, humanitarian work practices and philanthropic ventures left a legacy from which people benefit today. Mrs. Auerbach also supported 4-H by sponsoring the statewide 4-H dress revue held at the department store.

Field Notes

Farm History: http://www.auerfarm.org/about_auer_farm_education_center_history.php Buildings include a clay tile mushroom barn visible from Route 185 north of the entrance, an apple storage barn (see Part 2) at the top of the hill, and dairy facilities now converted to 4-H education center down the far side of the hill at the western part of the farm. The mushroom barn has a gable roof oriented east-west with a raised ventilation monitor the full length of the ridge and a small chimney at the southeast corner. Tax Assessor has this property listed as 147 Auer Farm Road.

Use & Accessibility

Use (Historic)

Use (Present)


Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

No

Location Integrity

Unknown

Environment

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

The mushroom barn is over the hill and to the east of the main house it is associated with. The house ridge line is parallel to the ridge line of the barn. At the top of the hill is an apple barn (barn II). Barn II’s main ridge line runs parallel to the mushroom barn and house. The main house is on the southwest quadrant of the property and faces north toward Auer Farm Road. Adjacent to the north and east of the house is a foundation garden. East, north, and west of the house is a residential lawn. South of the house lawn is a garage. The ridge line of the garage is parallel to the house ridge line. West of the garage is a driveway that proceeds west to Auer Farm Road. From the garage, the driveway connects into a road network that provides access to the dairy facilities converted to the 4-H Education Center. Auer Farm Road proceeds west of the house and attaches the road network to the west. Just south of Auer Farm Road and west of the house is barn III, its ridge line perpendicular to the ridge line of the house. South and east of barn III is an open green lawn that has sheds I and II aligned along the lawn’s south and west border, respectively. At the southwest corner of the open green lawn is shed III.

West of sheds I-III and southwest of the main house are residences II-VII, laid out it a rough rectangular pattern. Four of residences II-VII roof ridge lines are parallel to the main house, while the other two roof ridge lines are perpendicular to the ridge of the main house. North of the residences II-VII and west of the main house is a set of seven buildings and picnic shelter arranged in a rough grid pattern and mostly associated with diary production. The core of this grid has four buildings aligned in two rows on a north-south axis in the southeast quadrant of the grid, set on top of an asphalt parking pad. The first axis of the core has three buildings. The most southeastern building in the first axis is a one story office, followed to the north by garage II. North of garage II is a dairy. West of the first core axis, the second axis consists of a cow barn, barn IV. A covered passageway connects barn IV to garage II. The southwest corner of barn IV has a fenced in barnyard and two silo tanks. The ridge lines of the four core buildings, the office, garage II, dairy, and barn IV, are perpendicular to the house. North of the core and in the northeast corner of the grid is a picnic shelter. Its gable ridge is parallel to the gable ridges of the four core buildings and perpendicular to the house. East of the picnic shelter is a white picket fence that runs south to the northeast corner of garage II. The white picket fence is the east border of an open lawn that surrounds the picnic shelter, and extends west to barn V, which is on the northeast corner of the grid. Its ridge line runs perpendicular to the core buildings and parallel to the house. Barn V has a fenced-in and segmented barnyard to its south. The open lawn extends south past the west side of the core.

The open lawn has two additional buildings. South of barn V and west of the northwest corner of barn IV is shed IV. Southeast of shed IV, a footpath starts on the west side of barn IV and proceeds west to barn VI, its ridge line parallel to the core buildings and perpendicular to the house. West of the set of seven buildings and picnic shelter is open pasture, outlined by woodland. Southwest of the buildings is a rectangular lawn, which contains a mixture of small, fenced-in gardens and animal pens.
 
Auer Farm Road is the only landscape feature that ties the mushroom barn to the rest of the farm. Auer Farm Road starts at the southeast corner of the set of eight buildings and proceeds east past the north gable end of barn III and curves in an arc east and north of the main house. Then, Auer Farm Road proceeds northeast up the hill in a meandering curvilinear fashion past woodland and pastures to north past barn II on the hill top. East of barn II, Cider Hill Road starts from Auer Farm Road and proceeds south until it dead ends next to residences VIII-IX to the southwest and shed V to the northeast. Woodland surrounds Residences VIII-IX, while shed V is on the west edge of an orchard.

Auer Farm Hill Road proceeds down the hill in a curving northeast direction to a tilled field on its north border, which contains the mushroom barn to end at Simsbury Road. The mushroom barn is in the north half of the tilled field. Simsbury Road is the east border of the tilled field and property. Woodland makes the north border of the tilled field and mushroom barn. West of the mushroom barn and tilled field are more open fields bordered by woodland and wind breaks. South of the mushroom barn and Auer Farm Road is a rural field with sheds V and VI. The T intersection between Auer Farm Road and Simsbury Road is the northeast corner of the field with signage pointing the way to the farm complex.  The size of Auer Farm is 120 acres. The area around the property is rural, residential, open land, and woodland.

Map/Lot/Unit: 85-4/ / 1168/ /

Typology & Materials

Building Typology

Materials


Structural System

Roof materials


Roof type


Approximate Dimensions

21 x 50 ft.

Source

Date Compiled

03/15/2011

Compiled By

J. Toner & T. Levine, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Aerial Mapping:
http://www.bing.com/maps accessed 3/13/2011.

Falconer, William. MUSHROOMS: How to Grow Them. A PRACTICAL TREATISE on Mushroom Culture for Profit and Pleasure. Orange Judd Co., 1892.

Field notes and photographs by Charlotte Hitchcock on 4/17/2010.

http://www.auerfarm.org/about_auer_farm_education_center_history.php

National Register Nomination, National Park Service, 2007 (SHPO files).

McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses, Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

Sexton, James, PhD, Survey Narrative of the Connecticut Barn, Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Hamden, CT, 2005, http://www.connecticutbarns.org/history.

Town of Bloomfield Assessor’s Record and GIS Viewer http://www.visionappraisor.com
Map/Lot/Unit: 85-4/ / 1168/ /
Tryon, Ty, Background and Secondary Research on “Mushroom House” at Auer Farm, 2007.

Visser, Thomas D., Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, University Press of New England, 1997.

PhotosClick on image to view full file