National Register of Historic Places

Kromberg Barn

Smithfield, Somerset County, Maine
Listed
January 22, 2009
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
08001357

About this property

The Kromberg Barn is a historic barn on East Pond Road in Smithfield, Maine. With an estimated construction date of the 1810s, it is one of the oldest barns in the area, and is architecturally rare as an example of a gambrel-roof barn built using older framing methods associated with traditional English barns. The barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The barn is set on the east side of East Pond Road, on a large parcel of land opposite number 462, in the rural central interior Maine community of Smithfield. This land was probably first settled in 1810 by Benjamin Stevens. Stevens transferred the land, with his "homestead farm", to Oliver Stevens in 1853. Based on architectural evidence, it is likely that the barn was built early in Stevens' ownership of the property. After several ownership transfers, the land was owned for much of the first half of the 20th century by members of the Kromberg family. The barn is set close to (within about 20 feet (6.1 m)) the roadway, and is oriented with its gambreled gable roof perpendicular to the road. It measures about 30.5 by 50.5 feet (9.3 m × 15.4 m), and is set on a foundation of piled fieldstones. Its walls are clad in wooden shingles, and most of its roof is corrugated metal; one steep side has wooden shingles. It is topped by a small louvered cupola with a metal roof, weathervane, and spire. The front facade has a main opening, which has a pair of vertical-board sliding doors, large enough to admit a laden wagon. There are small square windows on either side, and a pedestrian entrance at the far right. At the second level there are two sash windows, with a single sash at the third level near the gable peak. The interior of the barn has three aisles, separating areas used for different functions. The main framing of the barn is hand-hewn timbers with posts that have a gunstock shape, and are connected to transverse beams via plates. This construction method, more normally found in older (or traditionally-built) English barns, is relatively rare in Maine's gambrel-roofed barns, most of which were built later in the 19th or early 20th centuries. This building's gambrel roof is a conventional frame construction that probably replaced the original gable roof in the 1920s during a major renovation that also relocated the posts of the center aisle. National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerset County, Maine

Location

Smithfield, Somerset County, Maine
44.61966, -69.76947

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

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Nearby Battles

Battle of Norridgewock 1724
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6.3 mi
Father Rale's War — Norridgewock Massacre
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6.3 mi
Norridgewock Massacre (Father Rale killed)
1724Colonial
6.5 mi
Norridgewock Fight
1724Colonial
6.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Kromberg Barn listed on the National Register?

Kromberg Barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 22, 2009.

What type of historic resource is Kromberg Barn?

Kromberg Barn is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Kromberg Barn?

The period of significance for Kromberg Barn is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Kromberg Barn?

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