Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

n/a

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 ½-story eave-entry bank barn with a gable roof.  Two sizeable bank additions extend laterally off the rear of the structure – the southeast eave-side.  The main barn is situated directly along the right-of-way of Lake Road, and is parallel in orientation.  Lake Road passes this property at a southwest to northeast angle. 

The main barn is a traditional tripartite eave-entry gable-roof barn.  The primary façade of this barn is the northwest eave-side, which fronts Lake Road.  The main entry on the façade is a pair of over-size sliding wooden plank woods, slightly off-center.  The remainder of the façade is blank.  The southwest gable-end exposes the full basement level of this barn.  Two sliding pass-through-size doors are centered in the basement level on this end.  These are flanked by a rectangular six-pane window to each side.  A hinged pass-through door of wooden construction is located on the basement level at the south corner.  The first floor contains no openings.  A bracketed wooden plank cantilevers out from the dropped girt line siding divide in the middle of the building, to which a very large decorative windchime is mounted.  A decorative circular window is mounted beneath the roof ridgeline in the gable-attic. 

The southeast eave-side also has a fully-exposed basement level.  A shallow shed roof addition is located near the south corner on this level, which appears to be used for storage.  It features a wooden plank pass-through door on the southwest-facing gable-end and has no other openings.  Directly over this storage shed is a decorative window arrangement, comprised of a sixteen-pane arched window over a fifteen-pane rectangular window below.  A large bank addition with a gable-roof (Addition I) extends to the southeast across the east half of this eave-side.  The northeast gable-end shows a partially exposed basement level, and the fieldstone foundation.  Two six-pane windows are located on the first story on this end.  A large triangular series of decorative reflective strips is mounted to the first story on this end.  The gable-attic contains a single rectangular louvered vent near the ridgeline apex.

Addition I is a 1-story banked addition with an off-set gable-roof, projecting southeast from the southeast eave-side of the main barn.  This addition connects the main barn to Addition II, which projects to the southeast off the southeast gable-end.  The southwest eave-side of Addition I exposes the full open basement level, which is one large open bay, with clipped upper corners.  The first story of this addition features two horizontal eight-pane windows which bracket a centered wood-plank pass-through door with hinges.  The ground level slopes down on the northeast eave-side from the height of the main barn to the height of the first story of Addition I, then continues its downward slope to the south, exposing the fieldstone foundation of this addition.  A large sliding door of wooden plank construction is located in the north half of this side, along the level grade portion.  Addition II covers the lower part of the southeast gable-end of Addition I, but the gable-attic is exposed.  This gable-attic of Addition I contains a tall rectangular window with twenty-four panes flanked by a shorter square-shaped 12-paneto each side.  The northwest gable-end and southeast gable-end are connected to the main barn and Addition II, respectively. 

Addition II is a modern 1-story bank shed-roof addition.  It is placed on wooden piers and the single story is level with the basement of Addition I.  The northeast gable-end of this addition features a centered six-pane window.  The southwest gable-end is blank.  The southeast eave-side is not visible for the purposes of an Historic Resource Inventory.

The exterior of the main barn and Addition I is clad in vertical wooden flush-board siding.  The roof of both of these is metal.  Addition II is also clad in vertical wooden siding. 

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 on the property. The smaller one has one of the oldest foundations in the town. Coordinates:41.8896°N, 73.2902°W

Use (Historic)

• agriculture

Use (Present)

• unknown

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Other
• Shed
• Stone Walls

Environment features

• Active Agriculture
• Rural
• Woodland

Relationship to surroundings

This barn is located directly along Lake Road, which passes through this property at a southwest to northeast angle.  The grade throughout this property slopes down to the southeast, resulting in the banked design of the barn on this property.  The farmhouse associated with this barn, a large Federal dwelling, is located to the west of the barn, on the north side of Lake Road.  A second standalone barn is located on the north side of the road, to the northwest of the barns documented herein.  As only the primary façade is level with the grade of the road, stone walls and lower earthen banks bring the ground level down to the basement level of the barn.  The stone foundation for a round silo is located along the southwest gable-end of the main barn.  Three small agricultural fields are located to the south and east of this barn.  The surrounding acreage is completely covered in woodland.  Cream Hill Lake is located farther up Lake Road, to the west some distance from this property.

Building Typology

• English Bank

Materials

• Fieldstone
• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

Structural System

• Post & Beam
• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Metal
• Tin

Roof type

• Gable

Approximate Dimensions

BARN: 588 square feet, ADDITION I: 320 square feet

Date Compiled

05/14/2011

Compiled By

N. Nietering & T. Levine, Reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Photographs by Lazlo Gyorsok & Nathan Nietering.

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.

Map of Cornwall, CT, retrieved on May 6, 2011 from website www.bing.com.

Cornwall Assessor’s Records - Town of Cornwall Assessor’s Office site visit - April 21, 2011.