SAVING THE BATES-SCOFIELD BARN

Construction is underway on the Darien Historical Society's plan to reunite our Bates-Scofield House with its rediscovered barn. The barn has been in storage for the last two years while we finalized our design, went through the town's approval process, and, most importantly, raised funds for the project. The plan calls for the 1827 barn to be attached to our house with a connector building, which will house an archive and offices. The barn itself will be our first dedicated exhibit space.

With our new exhibition space we will be able to mount costume exhibitions from our extensive and rarely seen collection, as well as exhibitions of our never-seen flags, quilts and paintings, and we will be able to do thematic exhibitions where we can borrow from other collections. The barn will also be an attractive space for meetings, receptions, lectures and concerts.

The connector building will welcome people with a new handicapped accessible entrance, and will house a fireproof archive for our documents, photographs, maps and other works on paper. The administrative office will also be housed in the connector buiding, allowing the old administrative/library room to vecome a dedicated research area, a reference library with public computer stations for accessing our online catalogue. Materials will be appropriately positioned for easy retrieval and use by staff, volunteers and outsiders in answering townspeople's inquiries; writing articles; developing school programs; researching and describing items in the collection as part of our project to make this information available online; and even tutoring small groups as part of educational programs in cooperation with the schools.

The downstairs multi-purpose room will become an Education center. The room will house all the Society's educational materials, and will be the scene for class-sized educational programs and all hands-on acttivities. Programs for children and adults will emphasize traditional crafts and the understanding of how bygone skills and attitudes relate to modern life.

Upstairs over the new construction and over one-quarter of the barn will be space for textile storage, including costume, flag,and quilt spaces. Greater accessibility and better facilities all around will open up these splendid collections to much greater use. Wearing apparel, more than any other type of historical artiface, makes the past feel human and come alive for children and adults alike. In the basement of the barn we will have storage for furniture not on ehibition, tools, household effects, and room to have an expanded collection.

Discovering and saving the original Bates-Scofield barn has given us an opportunity to get beyond the makeshift and make-do, in a facility that has seen no changes since 1964. With the help of the community and our members, we will create a new Historical Society that will be a combination of additional space and a reconfiguration of existing space that will serve Darien in the 21st century, and allow us to build awaremess of the richness of traditions of our town.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
A SCOFIELD HERITAGE PRESERVED FOR THE FUTURE

The 1827 Scofield Barn, which remained behind when the Bates-Scofield House was moved in 1964, has finally been reunited with the house to take a prominent role in downtown Darien.  It will be used as space for exhibitions, events, and meetings.  Adjoining the barn is an efficient new office space including a large archive room, which provides safe repository for Darien’s irreplaceable documents and photographs.

The building project also included an expansion of the costume, quilt, and textile collection area on the second floor, as well as installation of a museum quality heat and air system to insure proper temperature and humidity controls for preservation of the collections. A new education classroom was refashioned out of the old basement meeting room, with fresh paint, new cabinets, new children’s furniture, including tables and chairs generously donated by the Darien Library. During the summer the library will be renovated and landscaping around the building will be completed.

This project has allowed the Darien Historical Society to preserve a piece of Darien’s history, while expanding the society’s capability to provide educational and entertainment programs for the community.  The society is dedicated to supporting the rich history of the town by informing our residents of significant events and local buildings of interest.  Our new facility will bring history to life for current and future generations.

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Darien History

Darien Historical Society
Judy Groppa, Executive Director
Susan Bhirud, Education Coordinator
Ulla Kremer, Office Manager
Telephone: (203) 655-9233
E-mail: info@darienhistorical.org