Building Name (Common)
Hurd House BarnBuilding Name (Historic)
Hurd HouseAddress
25 Hollow RoadWoodbury
Typology
Designations
Historic Significance
Architectural description:
This is a 1-½ story eave-entry barn with a gable roof. The main façade faces north and the ridgeline runs roughly parallel to Hollow Road, which lies to the north. Principal entry is provided by a pair of hinged doors constructed of vertical wood boards with wrought iron hardware. To the west of the doors is a twelve-pane stable window, and to the east is an eight-pane stable window. On the east gable-end there are two hinged pass-through doors constructed of vertical boards in the southeast corner, and a twelve-pane stable window below the apex of the gable. The exterior walls are covered with vertical board siding. A raised girt-line siding divide is visible. The roof is covered with wood shingles. The foundation is constructed of un-mortared fieldstone.
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.
Historical background:
“The Woodbury Historic District is a residential community bounded by open fields and woods. It has a variety of Colonial and Federal houses within it and includes a number of Greek Revival and Victorian buildings as well.
The Woodbury Historic district is significant because its architecture and historic sites embody the history of the area since the seventeenth century. Nearly every type of house from the time of settlement to 1828 can be found in the area and it has some interesting Victorian houses as well.
The Hurd House, the oldest house in Woodbury and the oldest of the one room over one-room construction in Connecticut, built in 1680 and now owned, and being restored by the Old Woodbury Historical Society. Located on Hollow Hoad.”
The Hurd House is open to the public.