The Rolfe Barn is a historic barn at 16 Penacook Street in the
Penacook
Penacook, originally called "Fisherville", is a village within the city of Concord in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. It lies along Concord's northern border with Boscawen. The name comes from the Pennacook tribe that lived in the ...
village of
Concord, New Hampshire
Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua.
The village of ...
. The property was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2007.
The barn was first added to the
New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places
The New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places (NHSRHP) is a register of historic places administered by the Government of New Hampshire, state of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. Buildings, districts, s ...
in 2003; additional structures on the property were added in 2005 (homestead) and 2008 (historic district).
History
Built c. 1790, the timber frame barn is probably the best-preserved barn of the period in the state. It is also distinctive for its construction methods and materials, which are rarely seen to survive in New Hampshire. The building's frame is made of oversized timbers, which were hand-hewn and then smoothed with an
adze
An adze (; alternative spelling: adz) is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing ...
, a rare step not usually taken for barn construction. The building was framed as two separate three-bay
English-style barns joined by a bay in the center, giving the frame seven bays in all. The interior layout of the barn matches this construction: the central area has two threshing bays, and there are hay lofts on the outer ends.
The barn was built about 1790 by Nathaniel Rolfe, or possibly his brother Benjamin. Rolfe lived in the 1770s house that stands on the property, although it was located north of the barn and moved to its present location about 1888. The Rolfes were third-generation residents of
Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
; their grandfather was one of the town's early proprietors. Nathaniel Rolfe operated a large and prosperous farm, and was active in Concord's civic affairs. Later members of the Rolfe family contributed to Penacook's development as an industrial center, but maintained the farm until the 1860s. The barn was then apparently used in conjunction with a Rolfe-owned shop, housing
draft horse
A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English ''dragan'' meaning "to draw or haul"; compare Dutch ''dragen'' and German ''tragen'' meaning "to carry" and Danish ''drage'' meaning "to draw" or "to fare"), less often ...
s. The shop closed in 1941, and the property with the barn on it was sold out of the Rolfe family in 1991.
[
In addition to the house of Nathaniel Rolfe, the property on which the barn stands includes a wagon shed from the turn of the 20th century, and a 1998 house that is occupied by the property's caretakers. When the barn was sold with the intent of moving it in the 1990s, the Penacook Historical Society raised funds to acquire the entire property, and now uses it as its headquarters.][
]
See also
*
References
External links
The Rolfe Homestead Project
at Penacook Historical Society website
{{NRHP in Merrimack County, New Hampshire
Commercial buildings completed in 1790
Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire
National Register of Historic Places in Concord, New Hampshire
New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places