THE COVERED BRIDGE

The covered bridge of solid beam

Above the slow, meandering stream –

The misty lake below the hill,

The mountain forest, cool and still,

Where birch and oak with spruce and pine

In cheerful harmony combine –

The countryside, so good to see,

And, most of all, so good to be –

All this, though elements may rage,

Stays part of all our heritage.

In healing sun and windy rain,

The touch of earth brings strength again:

And if a while it lies behind,

It still supports our strength of mind.

Catharine Jackson Alger

CHRISTMAS 1941

Note from Barn Hunter Charlotte: 
This poem was written by my grandmother in the days after the Pearl Harbor attack.

October Fieldwork

We're getting to work on our Thematic Multiple Property State Register Nomination - that's the long way of saying, Todd and Charlotte are getting out in the field to "interview" and research 200 of Connecticut's significant barns which we are nominating to the State Register of Historic Places.

It's hard to choose 200 from the 8,000 that we have seen!

This is a classic 20th century dairy farm - it turns out the little 3-bay English barn was there first, and the big gambrel dairy barn was an addition following a pattern book from U Conn - the latest technology in the 1920s.

It's a gorgeous location on a ridge overlooking the Naugatuck and Little Rivers. Sad thing is, there haven't been cows here since 1984.

September Fairs

We'll be at the Guilford Fair September 16-18

 and 

at the Durham Fair September 23-25

Stop in and say hello!

Celebrate Barns - the Hoedown!

Thanks !

To Ragweed - the band, 
    Bushnell Farms - the barn raising, 
        Bring Back Barns - the joinery, 
               The Eli Whitney Museum for the barn, 
                     All our friends who came and made it a great time!

Hoedown Time!

We're CELEBRATING 

our Statewide Barn Survey
and
all the great volunteers who make it happen!

Join us at a Hoedown 

Sunday, July 24 from 1 to 4 pm 

at the Eli Whitney Barn 

940 Whitney Avenue, Hamden CT

$10 donation requested

RSVP 203-562-6312

Prizes

Live Bluegrass Band

Food

Barn-raising

Barn Art Show in the Barn 

Barn Challenge 

We've got over 7,920 barns listed so far - 

Help us reach 8,000 by the Hoedown

Scout out the missing barns and send in the barn photos to connecticutbarns.org

Photo by Alec Frost

Help us find this barn!

First in a series of mystery barns ...
Here's a barn - we don't know where to find it - can you help us?
If you know, email us at ctbarns@gmail.com

Tough News in a Hard Winter

It's been a hard season for our old barns - we've been learning of roof collapses all over the state from the weight of record snowfall saturated by rain.

Eli Whitney Barn's Wagon Shed, February 4, 2011

Just this week the 1816 Eli Whitney Barn, which we see out our office windows, lost its wagon shed. Wednesday it was there, Thursday a pile of rubble.

 Wagon Shed Rear (West), February 4, 2011

The "before" portrait shows the barn with its shed, which has had several different roof configurations over the years. Check out the story of this barn at http://www.connecticutbarns.org/1788

The Eli Whitney Museum, owner of the barn, had plans already in place to restore the wagon shed back to its earliest appearance. Watch for the work to get started after the snow melts.

Eli Whitney Barn, back in the Spring of 2010

Photography by C. Hitchcock