Historic Barns of Connecticut

Designations

• National Register
• State Register

Historic Significance

Architectural description:

This is a 1 1/2-story wagon shed-style structure with a gable roof oriented east-west. The roof is saltbox style, with its north eaveline lower than the south, where the openings are located. In this building there appear to be three openings with garage doors in the south eave-side. The gable-ends are blank. Siding is vertical flush boards painted ivory to match the house, with white trim. Roofing is asphalt shingles.

Historical significance:

Until the 1830s, the horses used for riding and driving carriages were often kept in the main barn along with the other farm animals. By the 1850s, 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-cursors 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. Elaborate carriage houses were also associated with gentlemen farms and country estates of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Another form of carriage barn, the urban livery stable, served the needs of tradespeople.

Distinguished by the long shed or gable roof and the row of large openings along the eave side, the typical wagon shed was often built as a separate structure or as a wing connected to the farmhouse or the barn. These open-bay structures protect farm vehicles and equipment from the weather and provide shelter for doing small repairs and maintenance.

Historical background:

This is identified as a 20th-century barn (1920) associated with the Philo Barnes House. Its original purpose may have been as a wagon or carriage shed, or a garage.

The house is significant historically because it was the home of the Barnes and Frost families. Philo Barnes, who acquired the house in 1810, was a large landowner. His son, Seth E. Barnes, was a member of a group of Southington men who traveled to the California gold fields in the 1840s. A letter to his wife graphically portrays the hardships encountered. Seth E. Barnes died in 1863 at Charleston, South Carolina, while a prisoner of war. His widow, Lucinda, brought up her grandson, Edwin Seth Todd, who became General Manager of Clark Brothers Bolt Co. Levi D. Frost of the Marion bolt manufacturing company acquired the house in 1883. It stayed in his family to 1916.
Pitt Cowles, who probably was the builder of the house, was the son of Capt. Josiah Cowles (184 Marion Ave.).

Field Notes

Barn is a contributing resource in the Marion Historic District located in Southington CT.

Use (Historic)

• carriage barn

Use (Present)

• garage

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Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Demolished

n/a

Location Integrity

Unknown

Related features

• Barn
• Garage
• Shed

Environment features

• High Density
• Residential
• Rural

Relationship to surroundings

This house and barn are located on a 1. 2-acre parcel on the west side of Marion Avenue south of School Street in the Marion Historic District, a historic residential community with buildings dating from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Marion Avenue was established as a north-south route between Cheshire and Bristol, while the Marion-Waterbury Turnpike has run east-west since 1813. Farms were laid out in the area known as “Little Plain” just east of a north-south trending mountain ridge. The early farmsteads were spaced apart and later development occurred through the 19th century as families divided their lands among children, infilling the street frontage along Marion Avenue. Industrial development in the later 19th century both in Marion and nearby Plantsville, and a trolley line connecting Waterbury and Southington, led to suburban-style development. Today the district is fully developed with houses of various periods lining the road on both sides and extending along several side streets.

Building Typology

• Carriage House
• Wagon Shed

Materials

• Flush-board
• Vertical Siding

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Structural System

• Wood Frame

Roof materials

• Asphalt Shingle

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Roof type

• Gable
• Saltbox

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Approximate Dimensions

25 feet x 36 feet

Date Compiled

10/11/2010

Compiled By

Charlotte Hitchcock, reviewed by CT Trust

Sources

Field notes and photographs by Charlotte Hitchcock and Helen Higgins, date 8/18/2010
Southington Assessor’s Record 028052
House: 1795   25 x 36 ft ; 1.22 acre.

Aerial Mapping:
http://maps.google.com
http://www.bing.com/maps accessed 9/02/2010.

Elliott, Janice L., Ransom, David R., Marion National Register Historic District No. 88001423, National Park Service, 1988.

Ransom, David, Barnes-Frost House National Register Nomination No. 88003109, National Park Service, 1985.

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.