A connected farm is an architectural design common in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces o ...

region of the United States, and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separa ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

in the United Kingdom. North American connected farms date back to the 17th century, while their British counterparts have also existed for several centuries. New England connected farms are characterized by a farm house,

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. N ...

, or other structures connected in a rambling fashion. This style evolved from carrying out farm work while remaining sheltered from winter weather. In the United Kingdom there are four distinct types of connected farmsteads, all dissimilar to the New England style.

New England connected farm

The typical New England connected farm complex consists of the "big house", which acts as the standard family living quarters. Connected to the "big house" is the "little house", which contains the kitchen area. Next to it is the "back house", which was traditionally a carriage or wagon house. Connected to the back house is a standard livestock barn. This style was banned in many areas due to fire concerns, but the bans were lifted in the 18th century. Originally, all four buildings would have parallel roof lines. In later years (post-1800), when kitchens became more of a room of the house, the Little House became an

ell An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", an ...

off the Big House. Connected barns describe the site plan of one or more barns integrated into other structures on a farm in the New England region of the United States. The New England connected farmstead, as many architectural historians have termed the style, consisted of numerous farm buildings all connected into one continuous structure. Houses, ells, sheds, barns, and other outbuildings all were combined to form one long building. Architectural styles varied, from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The connected farmstead is unique in not only its connection of house to barn to shed, and so forth, but also because the architectural style of the home was often used on the other structures, including barns, connected to it. The time period when connected farms were popular coincided with the period of the New England barn, so most connected barns are of this type. Occasionally the older style English barn was moved or also connected to a house. Noted historian and architect Thomas Hubka commented in his 1984 book, ''Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn'':

Those who built connected farms changed their farms by extending the architectural style and order of the house to their barns. This was a truly radical development by New England farmers, and it is this characteristic, more than that of house and barn connection itself, that is one of the unique aspects of New England connected farm architecture."

These types of structures were common throughout New England during the 19th century, but were found most frequently in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the n ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

and

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

.Lowry, Bates
Built in Maine
, ''Blueprints'' magazine, Summer 1985, p. 10, National Building Museu

Retrieved 10 February 2007.

Distribution

Wilbur Zelinsky, an American geographer, undertook a survey of existing connected farmsteads in New England in 1958. Through his travels and survey he was able to determine, to some level of accuracy, the distribution of connected barns and farmsteads in New England. Zelinsky found that the connected farm was most frequently found in specific parts of New England, namely in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where connected barns occurred over almost the entire states. Indeed, the style still persists in popular American architecture. Connected farms were also frequently observed by Zelinsky in southern Maine, eastern Vermont, and portions of northern

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educ ...

television series ''

This Old House ''This Old House'' is an American home improvement media brand with television shows, a magazine, and a websiteThisOldHouse.com. The brand is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The television series airs on the American television netwo ...

'' remodeled a homestead in this style located in

Carlisle, Massachusetts Carlisle is a town located northwest of Boston in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town had a population of 5,237. History English colonists first settled the area now incorporated as the town of C ...

.Liebman, Lisa
The Carlisle Project
Project Overview, ''This Old House''. Retrieved 24 February 2007.

Delmarva Peninsula

During the colonial period and into the 19th century farmers on the

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air L ...

Shore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water pas ...

of the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

built farmhouses that grew as the owner prospered. This style of house known the Eastern Shore Style or "big house, little house, colonnade and kitchen" is unique to the

Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virgin ...

. The first section or "little house" was usually a small 1½-story wood-frame home with a dormered roof. As the farmer prospered and his family grew, a larger two-story addition or "big house" was usually added. The summer kitchen was an outbuilding detached from the main house to remove the heat generated by cooking from the main house during the warmer months. The kitchen often had an attic above for

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to per ...

lodgings. The structure was located near the house, allowing the delivery of a meal while the food was still hot. On many eastern shore farms a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

was later added to connect the kitchen to the farmhouse. Connecting this outbuilding created the historically ubiquitous "Big house, little house, colonnade & kitchen" architectural style seen in many 18th and 19th century homes on the eastern shore such as Selma. Winters are milder in the Delmarva region, and unlike New England connected farmsteads the barn, while usually nearby, was not attached to the house.

In the United Kingdom

Connected structures have existed in

and

for centuries. The architectural historian

Ronald Brunskill Ronald William Brunskill OBE (3 January 1929 – 9 October 2015) was an English academic who was Reader in Architecture at the University of Manchester. He was an authority on the history of architecture and particularly on British vernacular a ...

identified four key types of connected farm structures found in England and Wales. The

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often rep ...

is generally two connected buildings which result from the addition of more and more partitions, thus subdividing the structure, or from the outright construction of a new building adjacent to the original. Longhouses usually have cross passages, and communication flows freely through the structures. The laithe house confines the family and the farm building under the same roof. However, there are no cross passages and no intercommunication between structures. Typical configurations include farm buildings used for both livestock and grain/ hay storage. The

bastle house Bastel, bastle, or bastille houses are a type of construction found along the Anglo-Scottish border, in the areas formerly plagued by border reivers. They are fortified farmhouses, characterised by security measures against raids. Their name ...

is an arrangement which places the living quarters above the farm building and, usually, the farm animals. This type of connected farm was common as a defensive arrangement; living quarters were located high above for security reasons. In what Brunskill called the "simply connected arrangement" the domestic structure is connected to any type of farm building.

References

Notes

External links

Overview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connected Farm Barns House types