This is a hybrid event.  Join us in person in the Mayer Room or online via Zoom. No registration required in person; the Zoom registration link can be found here. This program is made possible by New Hampshire Humanities.

Through architecture unique to northern New England, this illustrated talk focuses on several case studies that show how farmers converted their typical separate house and barns into connected farmsteads. Thomas Hubka's research in his award-winning book, Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England, demonstrates that average farmers were, in fact, motivated by competition with farmers in other regions of America, who had better soils and growing seasons and fewer rocks to clear. The connected farmstead organization, housing equal parts mixed-farming and home-industry, was one of the collective responses to the competitive threat. 

Thomas Hubka earned his Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Carnegie-Mellon University and Master's degree from the University of Oregon. His publications include Big House, Little House; Back House Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England; Resplendent Synagogue: Architecture and Worship in an 18th Century Polish Community; and Houses without Names: Architecture Nomenclature and the Classification of America's Common Houses. His newest book is entitled The Transformation of Working-Class Houses and Domesticity, 1890-1940: Improved Homes for a New Middle Class. Hubka's research primarily interprets the historic development and relationships between architecture/buildings and culture/people.