Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 ½-story gable-roofed barn structure oriented with its ridge-line perpendicular to Fenn Road, which runs approximately east-west.  The south gable-end of the barn has a two pairs of hinged barn doors with iron strap hinges.  Located in the center of the gable attic is a hinged hay door.  Six-pane windows with prominent sills flank each side of the hay door.  Located in the peak of the gable attic of the south gable-façade of the barn is a projecting beam for a hay track without hardware.

The west eave-side of the barn has a pair of sliding barn doors in the center of three bays, hung on an exterior track with a hood above. Six-pane stable windows with prominent sills flank each side of the sliding barn doors.

The north gable-end of the barn appears to have two windows in the attic level. Located near the right (north) corner of the east eave-side of the barn is a single pass-through door.  Located near the left (south) corner appears to be a six-pane stable window.

The barn has unpainted vertical siding which appears to be fairly new, and the roof is asphalt shingle. 

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 New England barn or gable front barn was the successor to the English barn and relies on a gable entry rather than an entry under the eaves. The gable front offers many practical advantages. Roofs drain off the side, rather than flooding the dooryard.  Although it was seen by many as an improvement over the earlier side entry English Barn, the New England barn did not replace its predecessor but rather coexisted with it. It this case, both an eave entry and a gable entry are used.

Field Notes

n/a

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• garage

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Garage
• Garden

Environment features

• Residential
• Scattered Buildings
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

The barn is behind and to the north of a c. 1723 1 ½-story cape-style house it is associated with. The ridge-line of the house is perpendicular to the ridge-line of the barn. The house has a 1-story ell extending north off the rear northeast corner. An asphalt driveway extends from the south gable-façade of the barn toward Fenn Road, which runs perpendicular to the ridge-line of the barn. The total size of the site is 1.00 acre. The area surrounding the site is residential with 20th-century single-family homes and some woodland. Located near the southern border of town, Fenn Road intersects South Main Street (Route 10), the main north-south road through Cheshire, to the west of the property.

Building Typology

• English
• English/New England Hybrid

Materials

• Concrete
• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

24 x 36 feet

Date Compiled

03/26/2011

Compiled By

A. Ehrgott & T. Levine, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Field notes and photographs by Kristen Young date 08/03/2010.

Town of Cheshire Assessor’s Record http://www.prophecyone.us/fieldcard.php?property_id=2174646
Parcel ID: 91-156
GIS Viewer: http://www.cogcnvgis.com/cheshire/ags_map/

Aerial Mapping:
http://www.bing.com/maps accessed 03/26/2011.

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.