Address: 43-53 North Main Street
Contemporary Building Name: Marlborough Country Barn
Historic Building Name: Cow Barn
Present Use: Retail Store
Historic Use: Cow Barn
Architectural style: Vernacular
Date constructed: 1880 (Assessor)
Description: The barn, which faces north, is a component in a grouping of connected buildings which forms one of several free-standing clusters in the retail complex. A wide shed-roofed porch runs across the front of the barn, approached by a single full-width step. The porch roof is an extension of the main roof's front slope and is supported by square posts. The central entrance is flanked by large windows of 28 small panes (7x4). On the interior, finishes are natural wood and framing is exposed. Fenestration on the rear elevation is a batten door and three six-pane windows. The components of the grouping attached to the cow barn to the west are less than 50 years old. The attached component to the east is a two-story gable-roofed historic barn with two six-pane windows at the first floor, two 6-over-6 windows at the second floor, and an attic window of four panes. The east side elevation, toward the road, has one window of 44 small panes (11x4). The next attached section of the rambling structure, to the rear (south), is less than 50 years old, but is followed by a small 12' x 22' one-story gable-roofed historic barn of vertical wood siding with an oriel of small panes in its eastern wall, under a loading door. There are two 12-over-12 windows on the south elevation.
Significance: The cow barn and its attached components play a roll in creating the effective overall rural and Colonial/Colonial Revival ambience of this large retail complex. While the historic buildings have been altered, especially by the introduction of Colonial Revival windows of multiple small-panes, painted white, this building complex and the site as a whole are successful in achieving an attractive setting related to historic precedent.
Sources: Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
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