| MARCH 6, 2010 -- The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is thrilled about its newest project: a comprehensive survey of the state's historic barns! They are inviting volunteers to help with this exciting project.
Volunteers are needed to help identify the location of the barns in their respective towns and/or perform windshield surveys (a windshield survey is simply taking a photograph of a barn and noting the address, usually from the safety of a car, thus the name).
The sixth target area is the north central portion of the state which includes Enfield, Tolland, Vernon, Ellington, Somers, Suffield, Windsor Locks, East Granby and South Windsor. Please join the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation at a presentation & workshop on March 31, 2010 at 6:00 pm at the Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield St., Enfield.
A brief presentation will be given on the history of the barn in Connecticut and then teach volunteers how to categorize barns by the type, use and construction technique. The resource identification workshop will involve noting the approximate locations of the barns to be surveyed.
They will then divide up the town into manageable areas for the survey groups to survey.
After a team (which consists of at least 2 volunteers) has been assigned to an area, it will have 4 weeks to survey the area and input the data in the Trust's database, found at www.connecticutbarns.org.
The database will be the foundation for a statewide historic resource inventory, which will give barns in certain towns some level of protection. Currently, barns have almost no protections. Survey information will be used as the basis of State Register and National Register of Historic Places nominations.
The workshop will include data entry instruction, photography tips, standard vocabulary and safety issues. Volunteers will be given a map of their designated area, a letter of purpose of the project to give/show to wary barn owners (explaining our program), a sample volunteer timesheet (required by the state), a booklet with pictures and vocabulary, a letter of commitment to sign and a tutorial on how to enter the info into the website database.
If you are interested in participating in this exciting project, please respond by email to barns@cttrust.org or call at 203-562-6312.
|
