Searching out Connecticut’s Barns

Of the five senses, it’s said that smell evokes memory like no other. I was reminded of that recently when I made a site visit to an historic barn in Connecticut. The smell of hay warmed by the morning sun brought back memories of a childhood summer at my aunt’s farm in Canada. A moment after that sweet memory faded I felt a pang of sorrow, as I thought about how these structures may soon no longer be a part of our heritage.

The Connecticut barn is a symbol of our agricultural origins and often conjures up a feeling of hearth and home for those who live here (especially those returning from a trip via Bradley International Airport and driving by the fields of tobacco sheds). Regrettably, this symbol is in jeopardy. As agriculture in Connecticut has declined and farms have gone out of business, their buildings, no longer needed, sit empty and decaying.

           Another threat is demolition by design—in the form of development. When farms no longer generate enough income through their produce, a new way of getting money out of the land is sought. The result is the process of turning farmland into developments that have no place for barns.

          The Connecticut Trust has recognized this predicament. Since 2004 the Trust’s Historic Barns of Connecticut project has produced a website, a series of information workshops, documentation for nearly 2,000 barns across the state, and a grant program to support historic barns.

Now, the Trust is able to extend and expand its project. Thanks to a two-year grant of $174,000 from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the Trust is pleased to announce the next phase its survey of significant barns across the entire state. It is the Trust’s goal to make this the most comprehensive statewide survey of barns in the country, and this survey could well have an impact on federal and state policy and funding for farms and barns.

            From our previous work we already have a good idea of the types of barns in Connecticut, their uses, construction methods and relative ages. For example, there are few, if any, 17^th-century barns still standing in the state, and surviving barns from the 18^th century also appear to be very rare. Most existing barns date from the 19^th century, as local agriculture grew to support the state’s booming cities and farming became more scientific. In the 20th century, barn building dwindled, paralleling the decline of agriculture; by mid-century, other than tobacco sheds, “hobby” barns and barn-like storage buildings, barn building virtually stopped. So, it is not just that barns are deteriorating or facing development pressures; they are, in fact, becoming an extinct building type in Connecticut.

           The biggest lesson from our research is first-hand knowledge of the immense preservation challenge that faces these buildings. Building types lose their economic value when their particular use is no longer needed in the area where they exist. In the case of Connecticut barns, it is not only that agricultural use of barns is in a downward free fall, but also their very presence on valuable land is seen as an intrusion: either a violation of zoning or an obstacle in the way of new construction.

            A complete survey of barns will provide the basis to make the case for protections for these historic resources. The first step in preservation is documentation: know what you have and try to understand what makes it important. A statewide survey will give us the big picture so we can see how individual buildings fit into the overall story of agriculture in Connecticut and help us to know which barns are of greatest importance.

            In addition to the Trust’s work, there have been some other surveys of barns by historical consultants. Old Sturbridge Village surveyed barns in the state’s northeastern corner in the 1970s. More recently, there have been surveys in individual towns like Redding and Litchfield; currently, a barn survey funded by the CCT is underway in Roxbury. Finally, there have been a smattering of volunteer windshield surveys, particularly in Guilford, Mansfield and Oxford.

            Nationally, The National Barn Survey and the National Barn Alliance were created to help grass roots efforts to complete barns surveys. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Barn Again! program has been a springboard for barn preservation nation-wide and continues to provide information to help owners of historic barns rehabilitate them and put them back to productive use on farms and ranches. Other states doing complete surveys include New Hampshire, New York, Michigan and Iowa.

To carry out this survey, the Trust will target areas within the state that have little or no representation in our database of barns. We will make a list of the towns from these areas and prioritize the order for surveying based on location, need, and current preservation presence. In each area, we will hold a public informational meeting and invite volunteers to help us—including local historians, town clerks, building officials, friends and members of the Trust, historic district commissioners, members of local historic societies, civic groups, granges, schools, cultural centers and other community groups. We will advertise our project to the media locally and across the state.

            The volunteers will be divided into two groups: one will help us identify where historic barns are in each town, and the other will perform preliminary “windshield surveys,” taking photographs and recording locations. The information will be submitted to our database, www.connecticutbarns.org, and subsequently converted into a statewide Historic Resources Inventory.

The Inventory will be used to determine the most significant barns and to prepare a statewide, thematic nomination to the State Register for Historic Places. Data from the Connecticut barn survey can then be compiled at the CCT and shared nationwide to help establish a picture of the number and condition of America’s barns. Additionally, adaptive use/mixed use historic tax credits will play a role in finding viable new uses for our barns while other sources of funds will help farmers retrofit older barns for modern uses.

Historic preservation is our best tool for encouraging investment in historic buildings so they remain useful while making visible the rich history and culture of Connecticut.

Todd Levine, the Director of the Historic Barns of Connecticut program, will supervise the next phase of the Barns Survey. If you’d like to volunteer, call him at (203) 562-6312 or email to tlevine@cttrust.org. For more information on the Connecticut Trust’s barns programs, visit www.connecticutbarns.org.