Nyberg: Historic barn trail coming to CT

(WTNH) -- Did you know that there are more than 10,000 historic barns in the state of Connecticut, tiny and large?
   
Did you know that all of them are being documented by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation so that you can visit them all?
   
It's true, we're going to be home to the nation's first historic barn trail.

"Do you think that people will have a better appreciation of barns, to me they're just beautiful and what they stand for, but is that part of the process to get an appreciation for 'we're losing our farms, let's keep the past so we can go to the future,'" asked News 8's Ann Nyberg.

"Yeah, I think that barns are a building type that have a lot of things going for them, most importantly people just love barns. Everything we've done we've had great support from everybody," said Todd Levine, Director, Historic Barns of CT. "Barns were originally a building that brought people together."

"They're community-based buildings," said Helen Higgins, CT Trust Executive Director.

"Well I think of the weddings I've been to in barns," said Nyberg.

"And originally when a farmer was raising his barn all his neighbors would come and help him and it was a community place," Levine said.

"We better start doing that again," said Nyberg.

"We've seen this, we've had over 400 people come and help us document these barns, come together and things like weddings and important events happen at barns and they are a community magnet," said Levine.

"Now when you build this barn trail, you're going to do an app too," asked Nyberg.

"Indeed there's three ways that the barn trail will come to us," Levine said. "One is a brochure and we'll have 15, 20,000 go across the state, another one is a web presence where you'll be able to download each tour and of course there's an iPhone app because we're in an age where you gotta have your phone."

If you love barns and want to help the state out in making sure that we find all of the historic barns, you can contact the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and they will deputize you as a surveyor, you'll learn a lot along the way.