Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 1/2 story tobacco shed. The ridge-line of the shed is parallel with Pinnacle Road, which runs approximately north south. The shed has eight bents and two aisles. The shed has a standard tobacco shed arrangement; a pair of hinged swinging doors in the gable-facades and a ventilation system in the eave-facades. The ventilation system for the shed is vertical siding where every second board is hinged at the top and tilted out at the bottom by means of a horizontal cleat, that lifts many boards at once, and metal prop hooks to hold the boards in place. The shed has a two-pane window above the door on the south gable-facade. Atop the ridge-line of the roof are two louvered cupolas. The roof has asphalt shingles.

Historical significance:

The tobacco barn, or shed as it is called in the Connecticut River Valley, is one of the most distinctive of the single-crop barns. They tend to be long, low windowless buildings with pitched roofs. They are characterized by vented sides to regulate air flow and allow harvested tobacco to cure at the appropriate rate. Derived initially from the design of the English barn, the shed is composed of a fixed skeleton consisting of two- or three-aisle bents repeated at intervals of 15 feet to the desired length. The wood-framed bents sit on piers of stone or concrete and the bents are connected by girts and diagonal braces. Typically there are two doors at each end, making the shed a “drive-through,” although some sheds are accessed through doors on the sides. The interior structural framework serves a second purpose in addition to supporting the walls and roof of the building; it provides a framework for the rails used to hang the tobacco as it cures.

Tobacco shed ventilation is accomplished using one of four different systems (more than one method may be utilized in a single shed): a) Vertical siding in which every second board is hinged at the top and tilted out at the bottom by means of a horizontal cleat, that lifts many boards at once, and metal prop hooks to hold the boards in place; b) Vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors; c) Less commonly, horizontal siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the top edge and open like long narrow awnings; d) A series of large doors along one of the long sides of the building with the other sides of the building vented by one or more of the other methods.

Field Notes

Located on the west side of the street, across from its owner's house, this is a well-preserved former tobacco barn whose side slats are presently closed. It has large hinged entrances on both its north and south sides, a shingled gable roof, and a foundation of what appears to be large round wooden pilings. Two matching cupolas sit atop its roof.

Use (Historic)

• tobacco

Use (Present)

• storage

---

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn

Environment features

• Open Land
• Residential
• Rural
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The shed is to the northeast of the house it is associated with. Between the house and the shed is a New England bank barn with a silo. The ridge-line of the house is perpendicular to the ridge-line of the shed. The house is in a corner lot demarcated by Pinnacle Road to the east and Snipsic Lake Road to the south. To the west is a large track of open space. The total acreage of the lot is 5.64. The area is residential, active agriculture, open space and woodland.

Building Typology

• Tobacco Shed

Materials

• Vertical Siding

---

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

---

Roof type

• Gable

---

Approximate Dimensions

Tobacco Barn 2352 S.F.

Date Compiled

08/13/2010

Compiled By

Todd Levine, reviewed by the Connecticut Trust

Sources

Photographs and field notes by Ellen O’Shaughnessy.

Map of Ellington, CT, retrieved on August 13, 2010 from website www.zillow.com.

O’Gorman, James F., Connecticut Valley Vernacular: the Vanishing Landscape and Architecture of the New England Tobacco Fields, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, 144 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, 213 pages.

Vision Appraisal Online Database. www.visionappraisal.com/Ellingtonct.