Tony Grassi, owner of the Mill at Freedom Falls, will be discussing its rehabilitation with Jennifer Rooks on MPBN’s Maine Watch this week. The show airs Thursday, December 13 at 8 pm, Friday at 9 pm and Sunday at 5 pm. It will also be on the radio on Friday at 12:30 pm. Read more about our participation in the project here, but Grassi’s blog has better photos, so check it out!
Our clients often comment on a pervasive artistic sentiment within the PTF crew. Shawn Perry and David Ford pursued careers in drawing and ceramics, respectively, before becoming timber framers. Ed and myself majored in art as undergraduates, and a portrait of Reese (scroll down) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery (Reese’s friend Megan Ledbetter took the photo, but I’ll use any flimsy excuse to brag). We think that our creativity and artistic curiosity add intangible benefits to our approach to carpentry, but sometimes those benefits are shown in stark relief. David’s painting of the temporary windows at the Moffatt-Ladd House are one such occasion.
While the window sash are being repaired, David and his crew cut and fit temporary inserts for the window frames. On the plywood inserts, he drew silhouettes of former residents of the historic home, and lined out muntin divisions. Volunteers from the New Hampshire Colonial Dames and the Museum’s seasonal staff finished the inserts by painting in the silhouettes. It is always a pleasure to work with committed volunteers and a special joy to see David’s artistic talents on display. Over the holidays, all of Portsmouth will have the chance. Please read more about the project from Seacoast online.
On Wednesday, the crew down at iFarm raised a new timber-framed kitchen ell. The modified English frame is based closely on joinery found in the late-18th century house. We based the size and location of the addition on evidence found in the house frame of an original, and now demolished, ell. Like the house frame, the reproduction ell is constructed of White Oak and Eastern White Pine, in addition to Spruce, a species dictated by engineering requirements. We worked with structural engineer Joe Fix, and architect Ben Nutter, as well as Howell Custom Builders, to build an historically accurate, traditionally-joined frame that met all Massachusetts building codes and regulations. Click on the slideshow below for more information:
At PTF, we have a passion for preservation. It’s been joked that Arron, our boss, wants to save every old barn and church steeple in New England, and that isn’t so far from the truth. This passion brings PTF to projects large and small, far and wide. Using the “my maps” function in Google Maps, we made the following map to show just how far. It took a little over an hour to create, and now we have a good illustration of our region for potential clients. Red markers indicate barn projects, Blue indicate churches and steeples, Green indicate museums and Pink indicate residences (residences are located by town center, not by street address). Click on each marker for a description of the project that took place there, and check back to our “Region” page, above, for updates on how far we’ve traveled.
View Preservation Timberframing Projects in a larger map
FOR SALE – The Israel Demeritt House is a two-story, center-chimney, timber-frame dwelling, 40’ x 32’ with attached cape ell, 40’ x 21’. NH state historian, Jim Garvin, reports that it “is the best example so far identified in Durham of a two-story, center chimney house in the federal style.” Out of seven original fireplaces, three are incorporated within fully-joined raised panel walls. The remaining four mantels showcase the craftsmanship of Nathaniel Demeritt, the original builder, with reeded moldings derived from Asher Benjamin‘s A Country Builder’s Assistant (Demeritt’s own copy is housed at the New Hampshire Historical Society). Original crown moldings, chair-rail and casing are unique and have been preserved in nearly every room. The house also retains all original sash and corresponding “Indian” shutters. There are six bedrooms and room for two full bathrooms. The summer kitchen, 20’x 23’, is large enough to accommodate modern amenities with minimal retrofit of historic features. The house is dismantled, documented and preserved in its entirety. Please contact Arron Sturgis, (207) 698 1695, and peruse the articles below for more information.
View the architectural model of the building, in PDF form.
Read our series, “The O’Kane Notebook,” on dismantling the building, and the craftsmanship revealed in the process.
Read James Garvin’s report on the history of the building and its residents. You’ll never read a more well-written application for National Register status.
Peruse all of John Butler’s stunning photos of each interior and exterior wall, with trim carefully itemized and outlined, below:
Scraping paint off of a building is an exercise in endurance, as well as management. Not a very glamorous job, its importance in maintaining the protective coating of a building can be overlooked. Paint failure can ruin a building due to water infiltration and paint build up can hide the details that enhance the form of the building. The architect and the builder of the past worked together to imbue each building with qualities that one doesn’t see much of today. It is always a pleasure to reveal those details long hidden. It is a greater pleasure to extend the life of some of America’s most important buildings.
At the Moffatt Ladd House in Portsmouth, N.H., we are removing layers of lead and latex paint while repairing the trim and clapboards as the need presents itself. The fact that we are all carpenters may bring into question the relevance of the task at hand: Why didn’t we hire the job out? Some of us have been painters and have delved into the art and science, as well as the history of the trade. The skill required for this undertaking is well within our abilities, and our passion for preservation ensures that the job will be done right.
With the right tools and procedures, work can progress at a rate that can maintain morale and avoid burnout. We have the means to sharpen the steel tools and keep a supply of the triangular carbide tips on hand. Sharpening and changing tips is part of the regimen. This breaks up the monotony while improving performance and, subsequently morale. We also don’t scrape for more than five hours a day. This allows time for the carpentry, which by this time is quite a treat. When enough ground has been covered, we can putty and prime. At the end of the day, there is a complete clean up, due to the lead.
As we approach the completion of the third side of the house, those who have contributed have shown the resolve to see a grueling task to its end. The attention to details in craftsmanship, as well documentation, has enhanced the future of this beautiful museum house.
All text and photos by David Ford.
Yesterday, I went to the New Hampshire Historical Society to look at photos of the O’Kane-Demeritt House taken by Doug Armsden in 1955 for a Demeritt “Home of the Month” Feature in New Hampshire Profiles magazine. The 5″ x 7″ negatives show the original interior fireplaces in all their glory, and I will share the scans with you folks of the internet as soon as we receive them.
While at the library, I asked Librarian Bill Copeley to see the 1798 second edition of Asher Benjamin’s The Country Builder’s Assistant containing the signature of Nathaniel Demeritt. There are two other signatures in the book, Samuel Furber, dated 1816, and Gorden Demeritt, dated 1826. We could tell that much of the trim in the house was derived from Benjamin’s designs, but it would seem that they were derived from this very book. I was especially interested in the penciled notes in the margins. On the back of a plate with an example of a front elevation, someone wrote, “A Fine House.” More photos, below:
When I embarked upon a career in wood, I wondered whether I should become a furniture-maker, and construct finely joined objects of beauty, or build houses, which provide a lot more utility to people. I soon found that it was a false dichotomy; working in preservation, I can work on buildings that are constructed like furniture. On the building we’ve been referring to as “The O’Kane House,” I’ve written previously on the finely-proportioned trim, and the stoutly-joined frame. Even the sheathing is weather-joined, creating a water-tight envelope, and the windowsills are grooved on the bottom to sit down tight over the sheathing. The carpentry employed at O’Kane isn’t ostentatious, but every day I am inspired by the craftsmanship employed at each phase of its building.
Given this gushing, we think that carpenter deserves some credit. “The O’Kane House” is a bit of a misnomer. For a long time, the building UNH now calls the O’Kane House was referred to as “The Demeritt House” in reference to the Demeritt family who built it, and lived on the land for more than 200 years.
In July of 2001, Jim Garvin*, the New Hampshire state historian, wrote an Individual Inventory for the NH Division of Historical Resources for the Demeritt House, one of the steps for applying for its placement on the National Register of Historic Places. In reading the report, I expected a bureaucratic list of dry historical attributes, but discovered instead a well-crafted narrative exploring the house’s former residents and their relationship to its architectural significance. I encourage anyone who has been interested in the O’Kane House to read the whole report, here.
The house was built for Israel Demeritt in 1808, on land that had been granted to his Great-grandfather, Eli Demeritt, before 1700. Israel inherited the land from his father, Captain Samuel Demeritt, and replaced his father’s two story house with the one we so recently dismantled. It was likely built by his brother Nathaniel Demeritt (1751-1827), a joiner who is known to have built a neighboring house with his son, the Rev. William Demeritt in 1819.
If Nathaniel was indeed the builder, there were architectural consequences. First of all, by 1808, Nathaniel would have been 57 years old, which explains why the house is so conservative in its layout and plan. The center chimney and first floor layout resembles other houses that began to appear in coastal Maine and New Hampshire shortly after 1700 (pg. 98 A Building History of Northern New England).
Conversely, the interior trim is far more contemporary and heavily influenced by Asher Benjamin. The casings in the front entry are elaborate, and Garvin’s report cites Plate 1 of The Country Builder’s Assistant and Plate 11 of The American Builder’s Companion as possible influences. I found a couple other possibilities in my copy of The American Builder’s Companion: in the top left corner of Plate 27 of is an example of a cornice that is very similar to the crown in the second floor front hall, and Plate 35 illustrates an example of reeding similar to that found in the Blue Chamber. I don’t own a copy of the Country Builder’s Assistant, but Nathaniel Demeritt did! His name is written in a second edition housed at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. Concord readers (Hi, Mom and Dad!) go check it out.
Nathaniel Demeritt’s age and life experience determined the design of his brother’s house. His commitment to traditional techniques determined that the house was stoutly built, but his openness to Asher Benjamin’s new forms and proportions allowed him to trim it out in a style that was lasting. People often ask me to define “preservation carpentry” and my stock answer cites our use of traditional joinery and appropriate techniques. I mention that as Preservation Carpenters, we still get to work on houses (and barns, and steeples) that are built like furniture, which is something that can’t often be said of contemporary buildings. But one of the best parts of preservation, and something that I have tried to express through the O’Kane Notebook posts, is the connection to builders like Nathaniel Demeritt. He faced so many of the choices and challenges we still face today, and it is satisfying to uncover tangible examples of his decisions in the Demeritt House. Demeritt relied upon proven tradition to help him design a sturdy, lasting frame, and watertight sheathing, but he also made room for innovation, and style, and took inspiration from the pages of Asher Benjamin’s books. In rebuilding the Demeritt House, we will face a similar dilemma. We have committed ourselves to using traditional techniques to repair and rebuild the remaining 85% of original material, but we face choices with regard to those couple of rooms that contained no original material, and will be needed for modern conveniences. We can only hope that we will be as successful as Nathaniel Demeritt in building new rooms of lasting style.
*Jim Garvin wrote A Building History of Northern New England, which I previously referenced here, here and here. Meeting him was a real thrill for me. He is as nice as he is a great writer, two things that don’t always go hand in hand.
Since April, Ed, Lee, Reese, Chuck, Jesse, Shawn and Arron have been laboring to restore the undercarriage of the Mill at Freedom Falls (c. 1834). The crew faced a number of obstacles: one corner of the building had dropped more than 10 inches out of level, and a stream that once powered the turbine still runs between the granite walls of the foundation. Stabilization of the structure required building staging around and on top of the works of the turbine, 16-20 feet above the rushing water. After stabilizing the building and the cutting the repairs, the crew was tasked with installing 12″ x 16″ hemlock timbers of lengths up to 22 feet over this:
Check back soon for more photos of Freedom.
Yesterday was the first day we had a crane on site to help dismantle the O’Kane house frame. I don’t think the day could have gone more smoothly, all thanks to a great crew, and crane operator Frank Donahue.
Thank you, Kendra, for all the pictures. Check back soon for more.
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