55 Bolton Center Road (Rte 85), Bolton (Eastern Uplands)

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

There are two eave-entry barns on the property arranged in a line behind the house with their ridge-lines running perpendicular to Bolton Center Road. The first barn has 1 1/2 stories and faces southeast. The main entry is located in the north side of the southeast eave-facade. The exterior sliding door is now missing. The rest of the southeast eave-facade is blank. The grade is lower on the southwest gable-side so that the basement story is exposed. There appears to be a pass-through door to the west of two widely-set windows in the foundation of the southwest gable-side. A window sits in the gable attic of the southwest gable-side. Until recently there was a shed-roof addition on the northeast gable-side of the barn. The ridgepole is still attached to the barn just below the girt line. A double-hung, six-over-six window sits high in the gable attic of the north gable-side of the barn. The barn has vertical, flush-board siding and is unpainted except for red trim around the attic window and the cornice molding. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles.

The second barn at the south end of the farm site is a 1 1/2-story, eave-entry barn. The main facade faces southeast and the ridge-line of the barn is perpendicular to Bolton Center Road. The main entry is an exterior sliding door, which, like the first barn, is situated on the north side of the southeast eave-facade. The rest of the southeast eave-facade is blank. The southwest gable-side of the barn appears to be blank. The northwest eave-side of the barn has an exterior sliding door centered in the lower story. A pass-through door is adjacent the main entry to the south, but the rest of the northwest eave-side is blank. The fieldstone foundation is evident. The northeast gable-side of the barn is blank. The barn is painted red with white trim around the pediment and eaves and on the sliding door of the east eave-facade. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles.

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. The 19th century saw the introduction of a basement under the barn to allow for the easy collection and storage of a winter’s worth of manure from the animals sheltered within the building. The bank barn is characterized by the location of its main floor above grade, either through building into a hillside or by raising the building on a foundation. This innovation, aided by the introduction of windows for light and ventilation, would eventually be joined by the introduction of space to shelter more animals under the main floor of the barn.

Field Notes

Two barns, one behind the other. One red, the other unpainted.

Use (Historic)

agriculture

Use (Present)

unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

Environment features

Relationship to surroundings

The two barns are arranged in a line behind and to the southwest of the house they are associated with. The ridge-line of the house is parallel to Bolton Center Road, which runs from the northwest to the southeast. The house has an extensive double-story, gable-roof addition connected to a single-story, hip roof addition on the west side. The ridge-lines of the barns are perpendicular to the house and run parallel to the exit ramp from Interstate 384 which forms the west border of the property. An unpaved driveway enters the property just east of the house from Bolton Center Road and runs parallel to the southeast eave-facades of the barns descending toward the rear of the property. The lateral sides of the 22.1 acre property are articulated by a row of trees and brush which protects what appear to be plowed fields or pastures on the east and west sides of the barns. The south end of the property consists of woodland. A small, gable roof shed is located behind the house in front of the northeast gable-side of the first barn. Another gable-roof shed is situated just to the west of the southwest gable-side of the same barn. A diminutive gable-roof shed sits between it and the barn and a second diminutive shed with a flat roof is centered at the southwest gable-side of the shed. A fieldstone structure is found on the east side of the drive between the house and the first barn. The area surrounding the site is residential, light agriculture, light open space and woodland.

Map/Block/Lot 10 3

Building Typology

Materials

Approximate Dimensions

n/a

Date Compiled

10/30/2010

Compiled By

Amy Prescher & Todd Levine, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs and field notes by Carol and Alan Lyons.

The Capitol Region Council of Governments website.
http://www.crcog.org/gissearch/

Map of Bolton, CT, retrieved on October 30, 2010 from website www.bing.com.

eQuality Valuation Services, LLC Database. http://www.equalitycama.com/tvweb/MainSearch.aspx?city=Bolton

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.

Historic Barns of Connecticut

Barn Record Bolton