Building Name (Common)
Pumpkin Hill Farm: Part 3 of 3Address
430 Pumpkin Hill RoadAshford
Typology
Historic Significance
Architectural description: This is a 1 ½ story gable-entry barn with a gable-roofed addition. The main facade faces north with its ridge line running north-south. The north gable-end has a hooded pair of sliding wagon doors mounted on an exterior track. Each door has a fixed six-pane window in the upper portion and X-braces in the lower portion. The west leaf has a weather door. Centered below the triangular projecting hay hood is a pair of Dutch hay doors with trim. Above the doors is an X-braced hay door with trim. Just beneath the eave on the west eave-side of the barn are three evenly spaced three-paned hopper windows with a fourth south of the hay door. A stove pipe protrudes out of the wall beneath this fourth window. Off the southwest gable-end of the barn is a gable-roofed addition, with its west eave-side flush with the west eave-side of the barn. The west eave-side of the addition has an X-braced pass-through door with trim. Centered above the pass-through door and just below the eave is a X-braced hay door with trim. The barn has board-and-batten as well as flush board siding that is painted red with white trim and corner boards. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles.
Historical significance:
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. With the main drive floor running parallel to the ridge, the size of the barn could be increased to accommodate larger herds by adding additional bays to the rear gable end. 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.