Rhode Island Statewide Historic Barn and Agricultural Outbuilding Framework

John Milner Associates

This framework was funded in part by a 2008 Preserve America grant (grant number 44-08-AP-4133) to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission for the project Preservation Is Local: Community Preservation Planning Summits and Grants for Rhode Island. The records of the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division of the National Park Service for this project also include: survey forms, photographs and other documentation from the pilot inventory of barns and agricultural outbuildings in the towns of Foster, Glocester and Scituate; and scripts and Powerpoint files for presentations on the statewide framework and pilot surveys. From introduction: "The Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) received a federal Preserve America Grant in 2008 totaling $150,000 to fund local historic preservation planning projects statewide. The Preserve America grant program, which began in 2006, is administered by the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service in partnership with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The competitive matching grants fund Preserve America Communities, State Historic Preservation Offices, and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices to support their preservation efforts through heritage tourism, education and historic preservation planning. The Rhode Island Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission used its grant to fund Preservation Is Local, a comprehensive program to assist local preservation projects across all 39 cities and towns of Rhode Island. Sixteen locally based projects were selected for funding through a competitive statewide application process, including this project. Beyond community desire for this project, this project is necessary for several reasons. Old barns and other agricultural buildings are often community landmarks and in many ways, make the past present. Such buildings embody cultural traditions and local customs and they also reflect changing farming practices and advances in building technology. The primary trend which spurs the completion of this project is the overall decline in agricultural pursuits in Rhode Island. In connection with the decline in farming, a projected increase in suburbanization and sprawl by the year 2025, could have major implications for historic architecture in Rhode Island – especially barns and other agricultural outbuildings not in current use (Rhode Island Department of Administration 2006). In 2009 and 2010, JMA (John Milner Associates) worked with RIHPHC as well as interested Rhode Islanders to learn more about the history of agriculture and barns throughout the state of Rhode Island. This project has two main objectives. The first is to create as complete an inventory of barns and agricultural outbuildings as possible in three pilot towns, Foster, Glocester and Scituate. The information collected from the surveys helped to create a typology of barns in Rhode Island and helps to guide future preservation efforts. The second project objective was to enrich public understanding of the state’s historic barns and agricultural outbuildings through a written historic context document. This document is designed to look chronologically at the history of Rhode Island providing a context for identifying and evaluating historic agricultural buildings."

Rhode Island Statewide Historic Barn and Agricultural Outbuilding Framework

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