Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 2-story Victorian carriage house. The main south-facade is the eave-side with a cross gable. The main entrance is on the the eastern side of the south facade and has a pair of recessed hinged doors with multi-pane windows on the top half, topped with transom lights. A horizontal band separates this ground level, which is sheathed with clapboards, with the level above. A recessed pass through door is on the western side of the south facade. Both entrances, as well as all the windows, and horizontal & vertical bands are slightly raised. The second story has fish-scale shingles divided by four slightly raised vertical bands. The rest of the structure continues this theme: horizontal clapboards on the ground level; fish-scale shingles on the second level. Between the bands and under the apex of the cross gable on the south facade is a fanlight. Under the fanlight is a smaller version of the main carriage house doors, only this time topped with a double set of transom lights. The roof is slate and is topped by a octagonal cupola. 

Historical significance:

Until the 1830’s, the horses used for riding and driving carriages were often kept in the main barn along with the other farm animals. By the 1850’s, 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.

The long reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria lasted from 1837 to 1901 and, in the most precise sense, this span of years makes up the Victorian eta. In American architecture, it is those styles that weere popular during the lasr decades of her reign-from about 1860-1900-that are generally reffered to as Victorian. During this period rapid industrialization and the growth of the railroads led to dramatic changes in American house design and construction. The balloon frame made up of light, two-inch boards held together by wire nails, was rapidly replacing heavy-timber framing as the standard building technique. This, in turn, freed houses from their traditional box-like shapes by greatly simplifying the construction of corners, wall extensions, overhangs, and irregular ground plans.

The first ventilators were simple wooden louvered boxes with gable roofs, mounted near the ridge of the barn. The successor to the ventilator was the more romantic cupola. Coinciding with the Italianate style of domestic architecture popular during the mid-nineteenth century, the room-sized cupola, embellished with decorative brackets and a copper weathervane, became a symbol of modern farming during the early Victorian era. The object of the cupola is to protect the opening of the flue from the elements, keep out birds, prevent back drafts as far as possible, and assist in drawing the foul air from the barn. The cupola was replaced in the early twentieth century by the factory-produced steel ventilator, symbolizing another step in the movement towards an industrial approach to farming.

Field Notes

46 East Main in foreground; 44 East Main in background.

Use (Historic)

• carriage barn

Use (Present)

• unknown

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Cupola
• Other

Environment features

• Residential
• Rural
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The carriage house is behind and to the north of the c.1890 house with which it is associated. The cross gable ridgeline of the carriage house is parallel to the cross gable ridgeline of the house; clearly they were both built together. The area surrounding the .39 acre site is residential. A small body of water is off to the northwest.

Building Typology

• Carriage House

Materials

• Clapboard
• Other
• Wood Shingle

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Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Slate

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Roof type

• Gable
• Other

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Approximate Dimensions

1184 square feet

Date Compiled

01/20/2010

Compiled By

Todd Levine, reviewed by the Connecticut Trust

Sources

Photographs and feild notes by Esther DaRos/Mike Hayden: pportier@cox.net - 09/17/2009

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.

Town of Stafford Assessors office: Deed Book #0185, Deed Page #0574.

Harris, Cyril M., Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture, Dover, 1977.