History

The town records date the building to 1900. That's for the front part - where the milking parlor was. The middle section was added later and the big gambrel and silos after that.

Mr Fernandes (some of his family spelled it with a z, some with an s), was an astute businessman who had one of the first milking parlors that were "Certified" by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This meant that any farmer who couldn't afford pasturization equipment needed to sell their milk to the Gulf Hill Dairy. And the business took off from there.

The dairy went out of business and the building was abandoned in the early 1960's.

In its hay day (pun intended), many of the locals would go get ice cream from across the road (where the milk was packaged) at the Bucket - which is now located at the park at the bottom of the hill.

They would then take their ice cream to the milking parlor and watch the cows being milked at the 4:00 pm milking. The cows were washed and milked twice a day.

In the photographs you can see Mr Fernandes and his crew. It's also interesting to note the four digit phone number on the delivery truck.

Here's a link to some more history about the Barn. Click to See More History