If you are prone to feeling lazy, you’ll have to ignore the Foleys. In addition to their intense day jobs, they care for four horses, a flock of sheep, chickens, and a pack of wild dogs (it’s only two dogs, but they have a lot of energy). The French frame is the third frame we’ve…
Almost a year ago, we faced the year’s first pile of pick-up sticks: a neat but undifferentiated pile of timbers that formerly formed the French House of Kingston, NH. They were first assembled in 1804, around the time that the landmark Badger Tavern opened in Kingston, and the formerly enslaved overthrew their oppressors in the…
An enduring feature of timber frames is that they can be dismantled and re-used. A traditional barn-raising, in which a community comes together to erect a frame in one day is preceded by weeks of joiners’ labor: cutting and fitting the posts, girts and braces, plates and tie beams. With the help of many hands, or…
“We have to raise Weigand by the second cutting.” To a slicker like me, Arron was exhorting the crew to finish repairs on the enormous Brasen Hill Farm barn in time for some mysterious Pagan ritual. He was right. As soon as the roof was sheathed and papered, and before it wore metal roofing or…
This afternoon, we were more interested in boxes than a crew of cats. We spent lunch hour hand-crafting the finest eclipse-viewers in all of Berwick.
Hey, real quick! We’ve been cutting scarf fixes for enormous post feet, and fitting teleport pads for octagonal lanterns. Updates on Chestnut St Lantern, Brasen Hill Barn, and Jennison Barn, below. Teleport Pad, Photo by Jacob Imlay Chestnut St Church Lantern, Camden, ME: This cute little lantern was cut and fit at the shop, and is…
Last Thursday, I popped out of bed at 4 am, like Sal on her way to Bucks Harbor. Scott informed me that if I wanted to help remove the Chestnut St Church spire in Camden, I needed to be there by 6:00. By the time I arrived, Scott and Arron had set the rigging. About…
Last Tuesday night, we brushed the dirt off our shoulders and attended the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance Honor Awards Ceremony. The Northwood Congregational Church, Canterbury Shaker Village and Hampton Town Clock received awards. As David Ford, a former PTF employee and current property manager at Canterbury Shaker Village, accepted the award for restoring the Trustee’s Building, I…
This Friday, May 5, do yourself a favor and attend the opening of ‘A Distant Holla,’ Daniel Minter’s art exhibition at the Abyssinian Meeting House. The work will showcase Maine artists of color including Daniel Minter, David Driskell, Elizabeth Jabar, Rafael Clariot, Ebeneza Akapko, Titi de Baccarat and Derek Jackson. Michael Wingfield, Samuel James and Ahmad Kalari…
In 30 years of investigating New England’s historic churches, PTF has never encountered a better truss system than that of Eastport’s Central Congregational Church. Built in 1828, the roof system combines the traditional strength of a king post-prince post truss and principal rafter-principal purlin roof with innovative tying geometry that prevents the pitfalls of rafter…