Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1-story gable-entry shed. The ridge-line of this shed is perpendicular to Hale Street which runs roughly east-west. This shed is composed of the standard tobacco shed arrangement: two pairs of hinged doors on the gable-facades and a ventilation system in the eave-facades. This shed utilizes the vertical siding ventilation system 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 barn is clad in unpainted vertical flush-board and the roof is covered with corrugated metal. A thin, low monitor is on the northern three-quarters of the ridge-line.

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.
This is accomplished with one of four different systems (more than one method may be utilized in a single shed):
a) Vertical siding in which alternating boards are 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

This barn is across the street from 619 Hale St. It is a tobacco barn and in excellent condition. It is located on a piece of land totaling 9+ acres.

Use (Historic)

• tobacco

Use (Present)

• unknown

---

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

n/a

Environment features

• Open Land
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

This shed is set on a 9.10 acre property that is located on the north side of Hale Street about halfway between the intersection with Taintor Street and Spencer Street/Prospect Street directly across the street from 691 Hale Street. The property is bounded by a tributary to Stony Brook, a tributary of the Connecticut River, on the north and the east sides, and by six un-built residential lots to the south between the lot and Hale Street. This lot has frontage on Hale Street to the west of the six residential lots. The shed is located approximately 20 feet from the road. The land directly around the barn is a maintained field and the northern majority of the lot is woodlands.

Building Typology

• Tobacco Shed

Materials

• Vertical Siding

---

Structural System

n/a

Roof materials

• Metal

---

Roof type

• Gable
• Monitor

---

Approximate Dimensions

2500 sq ft

Date Compiled

08/26/2010

Compiled By

M. Antonelli & T. Levine, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs by Janet Banks.

Capitol Region Council of Governments, GIS Viewer, http://www.crcog.org/gissearch/.

Map of Suffield, CT, retrieved Aug 26, 2010 from website www.bing.com.

McAlester, Virginia & Lee, A Field Guide to American Houses, Knopf, New York, 1984.

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

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

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

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