{"nrhp_refnum":"12000782","name":"School Street Barn","other_names":["Hampden County Jail Farm"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"511 School St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Agawam","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.07610303000007,"lon":-72.59224537399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-09-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture","Law","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A double-ramp, New England-style timber-frame barn built about 1880 at 551 School Street in Agawam, Hampden County, Massachusetts, set within a town-owned park on the Connecticut River floodplain. It was later part of the Hampden County Jail Farm.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the barn as a well-preserved example of a double-ramp New England barn, a type developed for sites without slopes, with local sawmill framing practices. It also reflects the agricultural history of Agawam and the barn's later use as part of the county jail farm after 1949. The site of the demolished farmhouse and the archaeological potential add to its significance.","narrative":"Built around 1880, this large double-ramp barn at 551 School Street in Agawam, Massachusetts, rises from the Connecticut River floodplain and has become a local landmark. It is a four-bent, three-bay timber-frame structure, with sawn timbers of uniform size that reflect local sawmill practice, vertical tongue-and-groove siding, and ramps at both gable ends leading to the main floor above a brick-and-concrete basement. That design let wagons drive straight through and kept livestock and equipment on the lower level, above flood risk. The barn sits on about two acres of a 49-acre town park that was once its farmland. The site of a ca. 1840 farmhouse, demolished in 2000, is included, and the area holds potential for Native American and historic archaeology. After many changes of private ownership, the farm was sold to Hampden County in 1949 and served as a jail farm. Its significance covers agriculture, architecture, law and social history through 1962.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1880-1962","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Double-ramp, New England-style barn (classified as OTHER)","criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"The barn stands within the town-owned School Street Park. Its openings are boarded up to guard against vandalism, and its current use is listed as recreation/storage. The farmhouse was demolished in 2000.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:10:51.657074-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/65/7951/63795165/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/12000782.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000782/07c8b56a96-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000782/07c8b56a96-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AgawamMA_SchoolStreetBarn.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AgawamMA_SchoolStreetBarn.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795165","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Street_Barn","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15379131"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/school-street-barn-12000782/"}