Barns of Connecticut. Markham Starr
their farms. As soon as circumstances permitted, these early settlers constructed traditionally framed structures like those they had left behind. The earliest surviving home in Connecticut, the Henry Whitfield house, was built of stone in 1639. The oldest timber-framed home in the state is the Joseph Loomis homestead, built one year later, and a dozen or more framed houses constructed before 1700 still stand. These early structures mimic the framing traditions from which they sprang. No Connecticut barns from the 1600s are known to have survived, but we can see some of their foundations and sense their structures from seventeenth-century paintings, drawings, and literature.
Since the earliest house frames in both Connecticut and Massachusetts closely follow English framing traditions, it may be safe to assume that both the design and construction details of the first barns in Connecticut did as well. The building method settlers used, known as post-and-beam construction, employed heavy hewn timbers to form the barn’s skeleton, upon which barn builders applied a sheathing of sawn boards. The roofs, which may initially have been thatched, would be covered with split wooden shingles. This design was so successful for the single-family subsistence farmer that such barns were still occasionally being built even into the twentieth century. Post and beam barns are still built on occasion in Connecticut as new farms spring to life.
The English Barn
The location of the barn on nearly every farm in Connecticut was, of course, well within sight of the farmhouse — yet far enough away to ensure that a fire in one building would not bring down the other. Farmers wanted to be able to see and hear what was going on at the barn throughout the day and night, since being able to sense trouble brewing was critical to staving off problems before they grew too large. When possible, barns were also situated to catch the greatest amount of the sun’s light and warmth during its track across the sky. Hard-working farmers appreciated any available comforts.
The floor plan for the barn was fixed by tradition. These early barns were so similar in size and layout that they are known today as 30x40s. That is, they generally measure out to be something near thirty feet wide and forty feet long. The timber frames for these buildings divide the structure into three distinct bays, or sections. While there is some variation from barn to barn, it is astonishing to modern eyes to see just how little. Before settlers even considered crossing the Atlantic, hundreds of years of structural evolution had refined the barn to the point where a family could depend on its being the correct size and shape necessary for their survival. Much like evolution in animal and plant life, the English barn progressed to become an intelligent answer to a particular problem.
Early English barn.
The English barn was a gable-ended structure with the major doorway on the long side of the building beneath the eaves. These barns often had a pair of large doors on both sides of the building, which allowed wagons to pass directly through. While the large doorways provided much-needed light and air during warm summers, in winter months smaller entryways made more sense. Small doors were often built into larger doors. Given the precious nature of glass at this time, barns were built without windows. When the doors were closed, the only light penetrating the gloom would have come from gaps between the planking of the exterior siding. In the winter, barn interiors were quite cold, being able to elevate outdoor temperatures only slightly, but this was enough to keep farm animals alive.
The three bays of the barn were often quite open, from the ground level on up to the roof’s ridgeline. The center bay of the barn was generally left clear to allow for the passage of wagons. A tightly laid wooden floor was common in this area of the barn, as grains such as wheat and oats were threshed here before the advent of mechanical threshers. To separate the seeds from the rest of the plant, workers placed grasses on this floor and beat them with flails. Wind blowing through the open doors of the barn would waft away the chaff — the unusable portion of the plant — as the seeds were tossed into the air. Once separated from the chaff, the seeds were collected and stored.
The center bay also provided a working space sheltered from the weather for whatever purpose may have been needed: the repair or building of equipment, animal husbandry, or the thousand other tasks related to daily life. The bays to either side of this central bay were used to store grasses and other crops or to house farm animals. Except for the animal stalls, these bays were kept open to the rafters, rather than being divided into rooms. These two bays, at least early on, generally had simple dirt floors. While economics may have played a role in that decision, it was also more practical to have earthen floors where animals were penned. Wooden floors covering the entire first floor of the barn became necessary, of course, with the advent of cellars.
Floor plan.
In early New England, farmers might keep sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, oxen, or horses. These were animals that could withstand the winter temperatures if kept out of biting winds and falling rain or snow. Their wooden stalls were built to accommodate them over the harshest months. The pens kept the animals separated from the grasses and grains stored around them, and encouraged huddling for added warmth.
Differences between Early Barn and Early House Construction
The skills and framing techniques a carpenter used to build barns and homes were much the same; there were few significant differences between the two. Of course the daily operations taking place within the barn were quite different from those taking place within the home, leading to differences in interior layout. The barn, in contrast to the home, was an open and airy structure. Since timber-framed structures are self-supporting — that is to say, they do not depend on sheathed walls for stability, as modern buildings do — a timber-framed structure can be left entirely open without fear of collapse. For grass-crop storage, voluminous space was required, and farmers knew well the importance of air circulation. Grass crops are subject to mildew and rot if not thoroughly dried, and imperfectly dried grasses can spontaneously combust — something settlers could ill afford. Additionally, dried grasses were not pressed into neat rectangular bales as they are today. Rather, they were stored loosely as they were cut and placed in the barn by pitchfork. Open spaces allowed for easier pitching.
The Connecticut farmhouse had a different role to play. Beyond being a place to eat and sleep, the home was also a workshop where essential tasks were performed. Foods were cooked and preserved, wool was spun and made into clothing, and products were made to trade for necessities not available on the farm. While, like the barn, the home’s primary function was to keep its inhabitants warm and safe, it needed to do a better job of it. Open and lofted spaces are treasured in today’s homes, but such large volumes of air were impossible to warm with the primitive heating systems available at the time. Unlike the barn’s occupants, the inhabitants of the home couldn’t weather the temperatures of the winter months without being a little more snug. Planking on the sides of their homes was itself sheathed with either split wooden shingles or riven clapboards. Interior walls were plastered as a further measure against drafts. Rooms within early houses tended to be smaller than the rooms we live in today. Low ceilings helped to keep rooms warm by reducing the volume of air. While New England’s homes were certainly quite cold by modern standards, fireplaces and eventually more efficient woodstoves kept the family moderately comfortable by burning first wood and, later on, coal.
Unlike domestic structures, barns had no requirements for uniform floor levels between sections. They could be at one height or any other — practicality determined the particulars for each working level. In early barn layout and construction, form strictly followed function in an attempt to make the work within the barn’s walls as efficient as possible. The needs of the farm and the farmer took precedence over other considerations. Because everything today is strictly ordered and governed by building codes, floor levels in old barns often seem randomly placed to our modern eyes. We do not expect to bang our heads on timbers or fall through openings as we walk through a building. In a working barn, however, modern safety regulations would have been a hindrance and dramatically reduced