Feed your horse without going outside Welcome back to Period Dramas, a weekly column that alternates between rounding up historic homes on the market and answering questions we?ve always had about older structures.
Drive around a rural New England village and chances are you?ll see a house or two that resembles a rambling cottage. These houses, which generally date to the first half of the 19th century, consist of a main structure connects via a series of auxiliary spaces to a barn.
They may serve only a residential purpose today, but that wasn?t always the case. The type of structure, called a ?connected farm,? is a relic from New England?s agricultural history when a single, multi-purpose structure accommodated a family, livestock, and the general business of the farm. Each section of the house had a purpose. First came ?the big house?, which held the living and bedrooms for the family. The big house connects to the ?little house,? typically the kitchen. Then came the ?back house,? a place to store carriages and other equipment. The ?back house? connected to the barn.
The popular myth used to explain the ?connected farmhouse? is that such structures offered convenient access to livestock during harsh winter months. However, Thomas C. Hubka, author of the book Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, explains that while the convenience didn?t detract from the connected farmhouse?s popularity, it also didn?t tell the whole story.
Hubka writes that connected farmh...