Located at the key crossroads of Wilton’s 19th century life – and 21st century life – the Comstock Barns are sited at the heart of the Wilton Center Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the State Register of Historic Places.
Saving Our Historic Barns: You see them each time you drive by the church, just as they have been seen by generations of Wiltonians. Built right beside the parsonage in the mid-19th century, the Comstock Barns have belonged to the church since 1962, when we acquired the parsonage property. Ripe with history, they are also badly deteriorated and in desperate need of repair.
Good news! The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the church a Barn Grant to begin repair work. This first phase of restoration reset and firmed the fieldstone foundation so that future work to make the structures weather-tight can proceed on a solid base. Recently, the main doors were replaced to allow easy access to the main floor.
What’s next? We now need to make repairs to the roof and siding to keep out the weather. This has been continually damaging the barns for years. To fund this second phase of restoration work, we will seek additional grants from various sources and ask for contributions from our church family and from the community.
What can you do? Visit the “Barn Bank” on your way to coffee hour and make a donation. Any amount is welcome. You can even make a habit of dropping in a contribution any time you’re able. Contributions may be mailed to the church office at 70 Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897. Together, we can keep our historic barns standing.
The Comstock barns are typical of the 18th –19th century agricultural life that formed around a rural New England crossroads. Directly across Ridgefield Road stands the Wilton Congregational Church, built in 1790 and today the oldest church in Fairfield County still in use. The Comstock family store stood at this location from approximately 1800, and a grist mill and saw mill were a stone’s throw down Lovers Lane (then known as Mill Road).
The barns were likely built c.1850-60, next to the Nathan Comstock House, which the Wilton Congregational Church acquired in 1962 and now uses as the church parsonage. The house was begun around 1810 by Benajah Strong Comstock, and additions were made as the years went on. As recollected in a June 27, 1962 article in The Wilton Bulletin, “Each afternoon in good weather, cows from the pasture would meander up to the Comstock’s red barn, which still stands at the southwest [sic] corner of Belden Hill and Ridgefield Roads and enter the barn’s lower level. Horses, wagons and carriages were kept in the upper part.”
Restoration of the barns will preserve them as the anchor in the crossroads of the Wilton Center Historic District, visible from every direction at this historic corner. The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation recently awarded the Church a Barn Grant to help fund the first phase of restoration: firming the fieldstone foundation. The grant reinforces the value of restoring these barns.
The Wilton Congregational Church seeks contributions in any amount to help fund the next phases of preservation work, which will ultimately restore the functionality of the barns. With a structurally sound, weather-tight space, the barns would offer a place for much-needed storage, hold property maintenance supplies and could offer educational opportunities. Church youth groups and Habitat for Humanity volunteers could store tools and materials, as well as hold Habitat training programs for aspiring builders.