Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 ½-story gable-roofed, eave-entry barn.  The main facade faces north and the ridge-line of the barn is perpendicular to Rock Hall Road, which runs approximately north-south.  The barn is connected to the house.  The main entry is a pair of exterior sliding doors with a hooded track, located in the center bay on the north-eave facade of the barn.  The east leaf of the sliding doors has a weather door.  In each bay flanking the entrance is a six-paned window with trim.  The east gable-end of the barn has what appears to be a pass through door on the north east corner.  There is a fixed, six-paned window in the gable attic.  The west gable-end is connected to the house.  The barn is clad in horizontal asbestos siding.  The main entry doors and some of the trim have been painted red.  The foundation is poured concrete. The roof has projecting eaves and is clad in asphalt shingles.

Historical significance:

This barn is an English Barn that has been connected.  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.

Connected barns tied all of the functions of a farmstead - home, hearth, workplace and barn - into a series of linked buildings. This is the “big house, little house, back house, barn” of nursery rhymes.

Historical background:

The main village of the Town of Colebrook, which is located in northwestern Connecticut, is situated in a small valley surrounded by wooded hills.  It consists of a cluster of historic residential, commercial and institutional buildings and sites dating from 1767 to about 1920.

Field Notes

Attached barn at east end of house

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• unknown

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

• Barn

Environment features

• Residential
• Rural
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

n/a

Building Typology

• Connected

Materials

• Asbestos Siding

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Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

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Roof type

• Gable

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Approximate Dimensions

n/a

Date Compiled

02/08/2011

Compiled By

R. Parris & T. Levine; reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Field notes and photographs by Robert VanCott date 8/23/2010.

Town of Colebrooks Assessor’s Record or GIS Viewer http://www.data.visionappraisal.com/ColebrookCT/findpid.asp?iTable=pid&pid=362
Parcel ID: 100364

Aerial Mapping: http://maps.google.com accessed 02/08/2011

Cunningham, Jan, Colebrook Center Historic District Nomination No. 91000953, National Park Service, 1991.

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.