New Lives for Old Barns

We now have shirts available for our volunteers and fans!

These shirts can be worn while you are out in the field surveying barns or just talking about barns with your friends.

To order: http://neprintandgraphics.com/store/index.html

Last week I told a sad story of decaying barns. This time the good news - barns ARE being rescued - some are re-used for new and different purposes. For example, a barn makes a great antique shop - here's one in Coventry.

A barn can become a cafe as in this Easton example.

A chicken coop in Chaplin is an artist's studio.

A pair of barns on Stone House Lane in Guilford are undergoing a transformation into a daycare center - you'll barely recognize these if you stop by today!

Nearby, the former 1880s barn of the Whitfield House (the landmark stone house from 1639) has been a caretaker's house and now is a museum exhibit space.

Before and after: the Karosi family barn in Ashford was reincarnated as the family's home.

These examples were all re-used on their original sites, but barns can be dismantled and re-erected on a new site or a new foundation. Even a historic barn may incorporate recycled timbers from an earlier one. Keep an eye out for un-matching joinery such unused mortises.

Photography: D. Fitton, C. Hitchcock, S. Lessard, W. Karosi

Dairy Farmers (and Cows) at Work

Even as we mourn the loss of a barn in Cornwall last week, let's salute the active dairy farms across our state. These are the folks who are holding out against the odds - through the freezing months they continue their work to provide us with our holiday eggnog, our melted cheese sandwiches, and so much more.

Here's a small sample of dairy barns and their residents.

This farm in Pomfret illustrates the progressive farm of the mid-2oth century, when stable barns with gambrel hay lofts were constructed from pre-fabricated kits, and the free-stall pole barn began to be the preferred home for the herd.

In Wallingford, the traditional farmhouse and English bank barn at the Co-Ag Farm looks like the postcard view of scenic New England,

but on the other side, here's the extensive modern farm with its pole barns.

The Knowltons have been farming this land in Ashford for generations.

One of their barns blew away in the great hurricane of 1938, but this unusual New England high drive barn, over a century old, has been jacked up onto a new foundation and continues to store hay while the heifers grow up nearby.

Photographs by: James Sexton, Charlotte Hitchcock

Celebrate Chickens!

In anticipation of the coming holiday, today is all about poultry.

Long long ago, back in the twentieth century, there were a LOT of chickens in Connecticut. Our volunteer barn crews have sent in more than 20 chicken coops so far - here's a small one in Canterbury.

Sad to say, most of them are no longer in use for poultry.

They range from neat and trim, to empty shells like this in Ashford.



Some old barns were converted to chicken coops by the addition of extra little windows, like this one in Stafford.



The purpose-built coop is most often two or even three stories with a nearly flat roof, and long rows of windows.
This one in Ellington has enough room for 22,000 chickens.







Most of the chicken coops we've seen so far are in the northeast part of the state,


but here is Brenda's Silver Lace Wyandotte, who lays her eggs in Bethany.

Check out our web site - search under "Historic Use" and you'll be able to browse the chicken coops.

Photos: T. Ells, J. Szalay, P. Niessen, C. Seifert, C. Hitchcock