Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• State Historic Resource Inventory
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a two barn complex towards the west of Forbes Street with Barn-I towards the south and T-shaped barn complex, Barn-II towards the north. The ridge lines of both the barns run east-west parallel to each other but perpendicular to Forbes Street.

Barn-I: This is a 1 ½ - story gable-entry two-aisle tobacco shed adapted to be used as a garage with a basement. The east gable-side of the shed facing Forbes Street is the main façade with two main entrances through two over-head garage doors. The gable attic above is separated from the rest of the façade by a distinct dropped girt siding divide line. The north eave-side of the shed has six equally spaced one-over-one double-hung sash windows at the first floor level. The grade level along the north eave-side gradually slopes towards the west revealing the continuous sloped cement plastered masonry foundation. The grade level along the south eave-side of the barn also gradually slopes towards the west revealing the cement-mortared un-plastered masonry wall of the basement below punctuated by two three-pane windows. The south eave-side of the shed has a system of ventilation through the vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors, each held in place by its own hook. The gable-roof of the shed has a brick chimney at the center.

The wooden frame of the tobacco shed is supported on cement plastered masonry foundation. The shed has red painted vertical siding walls and asphalt shingle roofing with a brick chimney.

Barn-II: This is a T-shaped barn complex with a 1 ½ - story eave-entry gable-roof main barn intersected by a 1 ½ -story gable-entry barn on its west gable-side. The intersecting gable-roof barn has a shed-roof addition encompassing the entire length of its west eave-side. The east gable-side of the main barn faces Forbes Street while the ridge line runs east-west perpendicular to the road. The ridge line of the intersecting gable-roof barn runs north-south parallel to the road. The main façade of the T-shaped barn is the south eave-façade of the main barn with the main entrance towards the east through a three-module X-braced exterior-hung sliding wagon door. The façade has four hopper windows near the grade level equally spaced towards the west of the main entrance. The grade level along the façade gradually declines towards the west revealing the masonry foundation of the intersecting gable-roof addition on the west gable-side of the main barn. The south gable-side of the intersecting gable-roof has a wagon door opening towards the east and appears to have a hay door in the gable attic above. The west eave-side of the intersecting gable-roof has a shed-roof addition encompassing its entire length. The south side-wall of the shed-roof addition has two one-over-one double-hung sash windows. The east gable-side of the barn facing the street has a system of ventilation through the vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors, each held in place by its own hook. The gable attic above is separated from the rest of the gable-side by a distinct dropped girt siding divide line.

The wooden frame of the T-shaped barn complex is supported on masonry foundation. The complex has red-painted vertical siding on walls 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 New England barn or gable front barn was the successor to the English barn and relies on a gable entry rather than an entry under the eaves. The gable front offers many practical advantages. Roofs drain off the side, rather than flooding the dooryard. Although it was seen by many as an improvement over the earlier side entry English Barn, the New England barn did not replace its predecessor but rather coexisted with it. It this case, both an eave entry and a gable entry are used.

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 wall ventilation is accomplished with one of four different systems (more than one method may be utilized in a single shed):

a) Vertical slats - 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 several boards at once, and metal prop hooks to hold the boards in place;

b) Side slats - Vertical siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the sides to open like tall narrow doors, each held in place by its own hook;

c) Less commonly, horizontal siding in which alternate boards are hinged along the top edge and open like long narrow awnings; this system may be employed along the lower edge of the wall in conjunction with vertical or side slats;

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.

e) The tobacco sheds can have additional ventilation through side-pivot awning vents on the gable-ends, which co-exist with one or more of the above four systems of ventilation.

Although some sheds lack roof ventilation, commonly there is either a series of small ventilators at the ridgeline, or a continuous ridge vent formed by raising the roof structure for a width of up to about 24 inches along the ridge. Alternately, rectangular openings in the attic gable-ends may have pivoting shutters.

Field Notes

Listed on the State Register of Historic Places 4/03/2014. Two barns on the property. The one on the left side of the house (looking from the street) is a tobacco shed that has been converted to a car garage. The other is several buildings joined together; the section nearest the street has venting on the sides like a tobacco shed, and the ones in back appear to have housed livestock. Both are built on a slight hill and have a basement section.

Use (Historic)

• tobacco

Use (Present)

• garage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Shed

Environment features

• Residential
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The 1.26 acres property, property number- 4541, is located towards the west of Forbes Street, opposite to Sandra Drive. The property is situated in a residential area with plots delineated by woodland. Residential plots flank the property towards its north, west, south and the east, across Forbes Street.

The two barns are located towards the eastern edge of the property with Barn-I towards the south and Barn-II towards the north. The ridge lines of both the barns run east-west, perpendicular to the road. The property is accessed by a driveway from the north-east corner that continues west separating the two barns. The circa 1907 flat-roof main residence is located in the south-eastern corner of the property abutting to Forbes Street. A small gable-roof shed can be seen towards the west of Barn-I surrounded by trees. 

Building Typology

• Tobacco Shed

Materials

• Brick
• Concrete
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Load-bearing Masonry
• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

Barn: 1024 SqFt Barn: 800 SqFt Barn: 512 SqFt, Circa 1954 Barn/basement: 2048 SqFt Barn: 840 SqFt

Date Compiled

07/20/2010

Compiled By

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

Sources

Photographs provided by Jeffrey Mainville

Assessors’ records and GIS Map retrieved on February 11th , 2011 from website http://www.ci.east-hartford.ct.us/Public_Documents/index and http://ceo.fando.com

GIS information retrieved on February 11th, 2011 from website http://www.crcog.org

Photograph/Information retrieved on February 11th, 2011 from website http://www.google.com

Photograph/Information retrieved on February 11th, 2011 from website http://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.