The newly restored Asa Stone barn at 27 Northgate Rd. was moved from its previous location on Argilla Rd.
The barn is typical of early American post and beam construction. Arron Sturgis, president of Maine Preservation studied the barn and wrote “It is clear that you have a very good example of an early 19th century “Yankee Ground Barn. Your barn is steeped in tradition with early English joinery including flared posts joined in the scribe rule method of timber framing. It hosts hand-hewn continuous tie beams, plates and principal rafters. Posts flare to accept the complicated and beautiful joinery created by those first settling in Ipswich. This traditional joinery is strong and beautiful and it is exquisitely coupled with a truly American farm building design that encompasses a gable entry at both ends of the barn. This allows access for wagons of hay to be placed in a large haymow with lower stalls located along its opposite side. This floor plan provided early farmers with an efficient system of animal husbandry.
Franklin Waters wrote in Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that in 1731, the heirs of Richard Saltonstall sold his farm on Argilla Road to the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers for £1850. Two years later, Rogers sold 84 acres with a dwelling and an earlier barn to John Day. After several generations of ownership by the Day family, Asa P. Stone acquired possession and built this barn on the property in 1839.
The heirs of Asa Stone sold to Roger Sherman Warner in Nov. 1915 (Mr. Warner was a descendent of William Warner who settled in Ipswich in 1636). For several years Mr. Warner used the barn to house his collection of foreign cars. In 1929 he moved the barn 150 yards to the east, where it was remodeled as a living quarters. Sidney Shurcliffe wrote in the book On the Road Argilla that many “hilarious parties” were held in the old barn.
Historic Ipswich 