Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural Description:

This is a 1 ½ story eave-entry multi-bay barn with a bank along its southern gable-façade. The western eave-façade of barn faces Hatchet Hill Road while the ridge-line runs north-south, almost parallel to the road. The main façade of the barn is the western eave-façade with two main entrances- one towards the north and the other towards the south. Each main entrance to the barn is through an exterior-hung timber-frame double-height sliding wagon door. The grade level along the façade drops beyond the main entrance towards the south and wraps the barn to form the bank along the southern gable-façade. Field-stone masonry has been used to retain the loose earth along the drop line. The southern gable-façade of the barn has a dormer entrance towards the west to access the bank level. The dormer entrance is flanked in between windows to light the bank behind. The gable attic above is separated from the rest of the façade by a distinct dropped girt siding divide line the ends of which are chamfered to form an arc joining the corner board. The southern gable-façade of the barn has a one-over-one double-hung sash window just below the apex of the roof. A pair of steel ventilators can be seen on either side of the gable-roof of the barn. The barn appears to have a silo on its northern gable-façade.
The wooden frame of the barn has white painted vertical siding with brown corner boards and asphalt shingle roofing.

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.

The proximity of the barn to the main residence, wagon door entrances and lesser number of windows suggest its probable usage as a carriage barn.

Until the 1830s, the horses used for riding and driving carriages were often kept in the main barn along with the other farm animals. By the 1850s, some New England farmers built separate horse stables and carriage houses. Early carriage houses were built just to shelter a carriage and perhaps a sleigh, but no horses. The pre-cursor to the twentieth-century garage, these outbuildings are distinguished by their large hinged doors, few windows, and proximity to the dooryard. The combined horse stable and carriage house continued to be a common farm building through the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, until automobiles became common. Elaborate carriage houses were also associated with gentlemen farms and country estates of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Another form of carriage barn, the urban livery stable, served the needs of tradespeople.

Field Notes

n/a

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Shed
• Silo
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Residential
• Rural
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The 6 acres property is towards the east of Hatchet Hill Road surrounded by dense woodland. Residential plots can be seen towards the north and the south of the property while a parcel of open land can be seen towards the north east. Dense woodland can be seen towards the west of the property across Hatchet Hill Road.

The barn is towards the eastern edge of the property with another 1 ½ story eave-entry barn towards the north-west. The L-shaped barn complex is accessed by a driveway from the south-west.  Two gable-roof sheds can be seen towards the east and south-east of the barn.

Building Typology

• English Bank

Materials

• Fieldstone
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

n/a

Date Compiled

08/12/2010

Compiled By

T. Levine and M. Patnaik, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs and field-notes provided by –
photoguru@charter.net

Information retrieved on August 12th, 2010 from website http://www.zillow.com

GIS Map information retrieved on August 12th, 2010 from website http://www.crcog.org

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