Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• State Historic Resource Inventory

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

The building demonstrates the great variety of approaches to timber framing, when details like the framing of a brace are examined, that were used in Redding during the 19th century.

This extended English barn is constructed with a hewn, square-rule frame with dropped ties and arcade plates.  The frame is braced in an unusual way, with the braces being let into the face of, rather than mortised into, the posts and beams.  Overhead garage doors have been introduced to the gable of the added bay (i.e., the gable further from the large side doors).

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.

Field Notes

n/a

Use (Historic)

• tobacco

Use (Present)

• garage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Original Site

Related features

n/a

Environment features

• Residential
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The building sits close and roughly parallel to the road in a wooded, residential area.

Building Typology

• English

Materials

• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam
• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Wood Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

24 x 40

Date Compiled

06/30/2011

Compiled By

James Sexton, PhD - KY

Sources

Sexton, James, The Town of Redding Historic Outbuildings Survey, April, 2011.

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.

Redding Assessor’s Database:
http://data.visionappraisal.com/ReddingCT/search.asp - 4/30/2011.

Aerial Mapping:
http://www.bing.com/maps - 4/30/2011.