Hubbell Trading Post Administrative History

Building Roster

Figure 31. The Adobe Utility Building, HB-8, the chicken coop, as it looked in October, 1991, with a few resident chickens. A Manchester photo.

Adobe Utility Building (aka Chicken Coop)

HB-8: Estimates place the date of origin of this building at between 1906 and 1909, possible as late as 1915. Its first use was indeed as a chicken coop. It was later employed for storage and a place to house an electrical generator. Niches were cut into the adobe walls for nesting. The building was partitioned after it ceased being a chicken coop. Most reports indicate that at one time the backyard, to the west, was enclosed by a fence, first of rough stone, later of "faggots." The fence was gone by 1931.

The structure is on a stone foundation, walls of adobe brick. The walls were eroding to such an extent in the 1970s that the building was stuccoed in order to keep it from disintegrating. [20] To that extent, then, the building does not appear as it did in 1967, necessity taking precedence over authenticity. Floors are concrete slab on south side, plank on north side. The roof is a complicated structure of vigas and thick latillas, a frame shed roof added over that and covered with rolled roofing. [21]