| During the estate’s heyday,
the Coach Barn stabled riding and carriage horses
for the Webb family, stored their extensive collection of carriages,
sleighs, harnesses, and saddlery, and housed groomsmen. Completed in
1902, it was the last major Shelburne Farms building designed by
Robert H. Robertson, and the last major building constructed on the
property. Robertson considered the Coach Barn—with its eyebrow
windows, arched entrance and courtyard— his architectural gem. A
central, brick-floored washroom was flanked by storage rooms for
carriages and tack, with additional storage rooms upstairs. Box
stalls and hay lofts were located in the wings. When a call came
down from the "Big House" for a carriage or saddle ride, grooms harnessed the
horses then headed up the hill. By the
1910s, the Coach Barn also housed the Webbs’ growing fleet of
automobiles.
In 1947, the Webb’s carriage collection and equipment
were donated to the newly-formed Shelburne Museum. Today, many of them are on display in the Museum’s Horseshoe Barn. For the next 25
years,the barn continued to be used for agricultural purposes:
housing sheep, wintering heifers and hosting cattle auctions. After
descendents formed the nonprofit
environmental education organization in 1972, the Coach Barn served as an
education center, the site for school trips, summer camps and educator
workshops. |
