All posts by Janis Langston

Bloomfield Barns & Outbuildings

Bloomfield’s Barns & Outbuildings

Wintonbury Historical Society is photographing & documenting Bloomfield’s Barns & Outbuildings…

Bloomfield’s agricultural heritage is seen even today in its barns and outbuildings. Some are collapsing, others house various animals & some are B&Bs. In March 1981 the Bloomfield Zip published a 4-page spread of Bloomfield Barns photographed & described in 1980 by Peggy Stanwood. 

In 2006-2010 The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation surveyed Connecticut Barns.  Only 7 locations in Bloomfield were surveyed.  The results are available at Historic Barns of Connecticut. When Preservation CT @preservationconnecticut conducted their survey they said…  “Barns are disappearing from the Connecticut landscape. In some cases, it takes years for a barn to slowly decay. In others, a barn may be standing one day and gone the next, razed to make way for new construction. With each barn that is lost another piece of the state’s rich agricultural history disappears.

In a few places, concerned groups have begun to inventory existing barns with the hope of at least documenting the buildings before they are gone. But in many parts of the state the sense of loss is based on anecdotal evidence. We simply don’t know where the state’s barns are, what they look like, and how they were used. We don’t know what we are losing.”

In 2024 the Wintonbury Historical Society is documenting Bloomfield’s barns & outbuildings. If you have one of these structures on your property, please contact us, so we can include it.  We would like to come out, take photographs, collect information & if you have any older photographs, please share them with us. [They will be scanned & returned to you.]

See our Instagram Account wintonbury_historical_society to learn more about these structures. For example, on 17 March 2024 Auerfarm the 4-H teaching farm and State Park was featured.

Photo credit: J Langston

Events, The Society and BPLCT Joint Programs

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH EVENT

Event Announcement

18 March 2024 at 7pm

Bloomfield Public Library, in collaboration with The Wintonbury Historical Society, is having Mary Korpi author of The Lady Lighthouse Keeper, published in February 2022, speak to us about her book about Stella Prince.

Mary Korpi moved to the North Fork in June of 2017 after retiring from a long-term career working with people with special needs. On a mission to get involved and meet local people, she began volunteering as a docent at Horton Point Lighthouse in Southold that August. She was intrigued to learn that one woman, Stella Prince, served as a keeper. Seeking to learn more about Stella’s life, Mrs. Korpi read everything she could find about women lighthouse keepers. She discovered that history overlooked Stella as she was not included in any published works about women lighthouse keepers. Mrs. Korpi delved into origin sources such as local newspaper clippings and obituaries through the Southold Historical Museum, local librarians, and the Suffolk County Historical Museum library. The factual information she gathered became the basis for the book, Justice for Stella was finally realized when in February 2023, the Coast Guard historian agreed to add Stella to the official list of women lighthouse keepers based on the documentation Mrs. Korpi gathered regarding her employment from the National Archives. Stella will finally take her proper place in history a mere 120 years after her service.

Click to View on YouTube

Events, The Society and BPLCT Joint Programs

BPLCT & WHS Program, Lemuel Haynes

Virtual Talk by John Saillant

Black Puritan, Black Republican: The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes, A
Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 7 pm

In this virtual talk, John Saillant, professor from Western Michigan University and author of Black Puritan, Black Republican: The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes will discuss Lemuel Haynes.

Born in Connecticut, Lemuel Haynes was first an indentured servant, then a soldier in the Continental Army, and, in 1785, an ordained congregational minister. Haynes’s writings constitute the fullest record of a black man’s religion, social thought, and opposition to slavery in the late-18th and early-19th century. 

This program is cosponsored by The Wintonbury Historical Society and Bloomfield Public Library.

You must provide your email address at registration to receive the Zoom link. Your registration confirmation notice includes the Zoom link for the program. This program may be recorded. 

Click to View on YouTube
To View the Poster Click Here