Phase Three of Barn Project

The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation’s barns project doesn’t end with the end of this phase – it is the launch of a state wide effort to continue documentation of existing barns. The web site will be monitored in-house by the CTHP and all new material thoroughly vetted. The best measure of success will be how much attention we can bring to this project and how much local buy-in we can get for local documentation. Further, we hope to see more local ordinances build protections for barns as “historic outbuildings” when properties are subdivided. The public training sessions on how to document a barn will be the final public outreach. In the long term, we will maintain the web site, vetting and adding new information as it comes in. Overall, the CTHP’s www.connecticutbarns.org will have become the only comprehensive resource for information on our state’s old barns. Whether this prompts more advocacy to protect old barns or merely results in a documentation of what “was there once” is difficult to determine at this point. Potentially an extinct building type, the barn in Connecticut will at least have a place where it can be celebrated.