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

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