Category Archives: Historic Places

Posts related to Historic Places of interest

Blowing in the Wind — Historic Weathervanes

August 3, 2012 @TheRainford Leave a comment

Oftentimes the little details of a building make all the difference — turning a non-nondescript barn into a memorable place. Did you see that barn with the flying pig on top of it? Did you see that house with the fish weathervane?

When wandering around the Freedom Trail in Boston you better keep your eye out for weather vanes. What animal sits atop Faneuil Hall? If you don’t know it you may be accused of being a British Spy as they did in revolutionary times.

Still don’t know what it was? It was a 4 foot gilded grasshopper, but don’t let anyone know I told you.

Grasshopper on top Faneuil Hall in Boston — Grasshopper on top of Faneuil Hall in Boston

In addition to telling you the direction of the wind, and giving artists a chance to show off, the weathervane can also tell us other things about the building it is perched on top of. They often differentiated public from private buildings, may hint at the status of the owners, what business may go on in the building etc.

Beyond the traditional banner or arrow weathervane, the array of sizes and styles was only limited by the imagination of the craftsmen creating them.
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In recent years these iconic pieces of our architectural landscape have been recognized as true works of folk art garnering displays at museums like the MFA in Boston, Colonial Williamsburg and the like.

But don’t let all the new found attention from the museum set fool you into believing they have a lock on the market — there are still people making their own weathervanes and exploring new possibilities. So the next time you take a walk around the block or visit a historic area keep an eye out for interesting weathervanes. If you drive up towards Freeport Maine you’ll even see several businesses that specialize in making novel new models. In your travels if you find any that are particularly notable, drop me a line via email or leave me a note on the blog.

Until then, I’ll let the wind point you in the right direction.

In the slideshow below you can see several of the interesting weathervanes on display in Colonial Williamsburg’s historic area and a few from the MFA’s collection in Boston MA.

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General Information, NBSS

NBSS Distinguished Alumni Award Winner: Brent Hull PC ’93

June 7, 2012 @TheRainford 1 Comment

One of the many traditions at the North Bennet Street School is recognizing a distinguished member of the alumni community each year at the graduation ceremony. With so many talented individuals coming out of the school it is often hard to choose just one person, and this year was no exception. As part of the alumni council we each presented candidates from our own department(s) to the other members of the council and the school administration and at the end of the meeting took a vote.

This year I am happy to report that we have our first Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) winner from the Preservation Carpentry Department — Brent Hull.

Brent Hull (left) and Robert Adam (right)

Brent was part of the class of 1993 and studied under Robert Adam. After graduating he returned to his native Texas and started his own company. From a modest beginning working in his brother’s garage, and a lot of hard work, Brent went on to build the Hull group of companies, which now employs over 50 artisans and related staff. He runs a successful construction and consulting firm, is the exclusive millworks provider for the Winterthur museum, has restored historic courthouses in Texas and worked on many private residences including those of Barbara Streisand. Beyond the commercial success, Brent has also been a prolific writer in the field of traditional interior designs and moldings publishing several books on these topics. Brent also enjoys educating his customers and the general public via teaching forums on the merits of traditional design and craftsmanship.

The day before graduation, Brent stopped by the Arlington shop to speak with the PC ’12 and ’13 classes. He shared his thoughts on what he enjoyed most about the program, shared some hard learned lessons, tips on how to start a business and select customers and some guidance around areas students should learn more about after graduating.

Rich Friberg, Bill Rainford, Brent Hull, Robert Adam (left to right)

Above, second year instructor Rich Friberg PC’04, Bill Rainford PC’11, Brent Hull PC’93 and Robert Adam long time PC department head and founder of the program gather in the office to celebrate the day. Robert also shared some of his wisdom with the students and reminded those who are from outside of New England that it has been his experience that the further students get away from Boston the more successful they often are given the concentration of graduates in the immediate area. This was great news for many of our students from around the country and abroad who will be going home with a great set of skills.

Johnathan Ericson handing out his Attendance Awards / Scholarship. Accepting the award is Frank Di Francesco PC’12

Rounding out the afternoon, Johnathan Ericson PC’11 gave out the Attendance Awards / Scholarship that he started last year. It consists of a certificate and scholarship for those students who maintained a record of perfect attendance while a PC student. The message is clear — that hard work and dedication to show up each and every day is something that should be rewarded and will help new graduates when they get out into the field.

Congratulations to Brent and the PC Class of 2012 — you have a bright future ahead of you!

Historic Places, Portfolio, Preservation, Timber Framing

2 Bay English Style Barn Raising at Brookwood Farm

May 21, 2012 @TheRainford Leave a comment

On Friday 5/18/12 I was able to participate in an unusual barn raising at the Brookwood Farm in Canton MA. It was the culmination of several years of work by North Bennet Street School students and instructors. The barn is unusual in that it is one of, if not the oldest known surviving 2 bay English style timber framed barns in New England. (I documented some of the history in earlier posts on this topic if you are interested) The barn is also interesting in how it was framed — with 2 bays being asymmetric and an interesting use of rafters and purlins.

As a student I worked on the floor system (joists and sills) along with hewing some of the replacement gunstock posts from solid oak along with milling LOTs of material that will be used to side and otherwise finish this barn. The class year before my class they worked on documenting the barn, labeling and dissembling the barn and working on the floor system. The class years to follow worked on restoring other members of the frame, laying up the foundation and now the raising.

The completed frame contains a mixture of original materials and new oak which was hand hewn and carefully cut to replace rotted materials. The result is a piece of local history that is now preserved for future generations (as it will likely be the focal point for many events at Bookwood Farm — known for its Maple Sugar Days)

Below you can see a series of photos capturing the raising and some other interesting sights from the big day:

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Historic Places

Hand Tool Heaven — Shaker Barn at Shelburne Museum VT

May 11, 2012 @TheRainford 1 Comment

Can’t get enough of 17th and 18th century hand tools? C’Mon I know I’m not the only one…..

Reconstructed Shaker Barn is home to the tool collection

In a rather unassuming barn deep inside of the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne VT you’ll find a treasure trove of antique tools on display. The collection has a large display of classic woodworking tools and many specialty trades like coopering, timber framing, bookbinding, locksmithing, shoemaking, blacksmithing and many other common trades of yore. Sounds almost like a listing of the majors we have at NBSS. 🙂

Every time we go, it’s always the first thing I want to go look at, and while it may seem a lost world to many, I’m always giddy to see how many tools from the same time period I’m regularly using in my own shop. It’s one of the best collections of traditional woodworking tool’s I’ve seen and it’s all on display.

In addition, the Shelburne also has great period houses, a paddlewheel steamship, lighthouse, classical and modern art, a huge collection of old toys, wagons/buggies/sleighs, rotating exhibits and events. If you are ever in the Burlington VT area I highly recommend you spend a day at the museum.

You can find out more about the Shelburne Museum here.

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Historic Places, Turning, Woodworking Techniques

Turning Ovals at the Old Schwamb Mill

April 30, 2012 @TheRainford Leave a comment

If you’re an avid wood turner and live in or near New England this is a road trip worth taking. The Old Schwamb Mill in Arlington MA (a short 1 block walk from the North Bennet Street School’s Arlington campus — and on the road to historic Lexington where I lived for a long time) is a great afternoon trip and the sort of place you could drive by every day and never notice — as I did for years. Once discovered, this site is a real gem, and also home to a Shaker furniture and supply store.

You may be asking yourself, “how do I turn an oval frame?”

The magic is in the head stock — one of only a handful of this 100+ year old design known to still exist. And there are 3 or 4 of them at the mill. As the head turns there is a mechanical movement that moves the piece being turned up and down so that the wood is consistently presented to the tool at the tool rest. It also makes for a rhythmic noise as it runs. It’s not like most turning — think of it like scraping with style.

The mill has been at this location for 300+ years and making world famous oval frames for 137+ years. In addition to the lathe shown here there is also a massive version in the basement along with several other unique belt driven tools which expedited the process of making and joining these interesting frames. Work from this mill is in the White House and other similar places around the world.

If you’d like to visit the mill, you can find more information here on there web site: http://www.oldschwambmill.org/

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Historic Places, Portfolio, Preservation

Harvard Shaker Meeting House — New Slate Roof

April 29, 2012 @TheRainford Leave a comment

Back in 2011 the NBSS Preservation Carpentry class worked on the Harvard Shaker Meeting House. It was a beautiful location. The class of 2010 worked on the front side of the house and the class of 2011 completed the back side. In this bucolic setting the class learned a lot about slate roofing and traditional staging.

Rear view of the Harvard Shaker Meeting House

Project goals:

Remove existing slate roof — preserving as many sound slates as we can
Stabilize existing sheathing
Install new plywood sheathing, ice and water shield and new flashing and vent fixtures
Replace missing cornice and stabilize raster tails
Re-hang the slates
Learn about traditional site built staging techniques

Below is a slide show outlining the work covered here.

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Historic Places, Portfolio, Timber Framing

Timber Framing at Brookwood Farm

April 25, 2012 @TheRainford 2 Comments

There are a few different methods for laying out the joinery in a timber frame — scribe rule, square rule, mill rule etc

This post will take a deeper look at some Square Rule based framing.

Back in the fall of 2009 we worked on a frame which will be the workshop of an NBSS student using the Square Rule method. The project was carried out at Brookwood Farm in Canton MA which provided a great backdrop for our work along with the location of a later Scribe Rule project — restoring the old English style 2 bay barn that was discovered on the property.

Rather than custom scribing each joint in the frame — which is labor and time intensive, square rule framing allows you to effectively make some parts of the frame interchangeable (Think Model T Assembly Line) — so braces, joists are all cut to the same size to start. This method of framing came from the USA and was in part an answer to the need to speed up production as America rapidly expanded westward. Effectively you are using a square to find/define the virtual ‘perfect’ smaller timber inside the potentially rough stick you are working on — thus where the joinery is cut you are cutting back the side opposite your reference faces to square up that smaller perfect timber. This way you have nice clean and consistent mating surfaces. In the joint below you can see this on the top of the timber where it goes from clean cut joint to the rougher edge as the timber came from the mill.

This system allowed craftsmen (and women) to cut joints on the ground or in separate locations and then put them together for the first time at the time of raising. For those new to the trade that can seem daunting — but with practice and the old adage of ‘Measure Twice, Cut Once’ its not as scary as it might seem.

Below is a slideshow outlining the process of building a timber framed workshop/barn

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Historic Places, Portfolio, Timber Framing

Timber Frame Repair in Dorchester MA

April 21, 2012 @TheRainford Leave a comment

Timber frame repairs at the historic Anna Clapp-Harris house in Dorchester MA.

Repairing a rotted modern sill can be challenging work. Repairing a timber framed sill can be even tougher if the foundation you are sitting on needs to be re-chinked into place as well. This house had some interesting things going on — beyond some questionable handywork by previous owners or tenants as you’ll see in the slides below. As each layer of the building is peeled back you can get a much better feel for its earlier glory days. By repairing the sills and other structural issues first we set the house on solid footing for upcoming repairs and restoration work.

Look for an upcoming post showing the restoration of the front windows which really give the front facade a new lease on life.

Captions in the slide show give additional information. 29 slides in this post, so be warned it might take a moment to load.

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Historic Places, Portfolio, Preservation

Viewing History — Old State House Window Restoration

April 7, 2012 @TheRainford 1 Comment

The slideshow below documents the 2010 restoration of historic window sash for the 1713 Old State House in Boston MA. This historic building was the seat of colonial government in the Massachusetts Colony, site of the infamous Boston Massacre and where the Declaration of Independence was read to the citizens of Boston.

It’s easy to take windows for granted — we see them every day — they are all around us. But with the constant bombardment of advertising for ‘new’ vinyl windows, the latest insulated glass etc and an over-hyped fear of lead paint and asbestos many of our nation’s historic windows are being discarded without a second thought. We’re robbing future generations of the same views we had — seeing sites through the same wavy old glass our forefathers looked through. The way light shines through a true divided light window and the ease of use and maintenance some old windows can offer.

Ease of use and maintenance?! What old windows are you talking about?

Believe it or not properly built old single and double hung windows can be quite weather tight and easy to use when properly installed and maintained. These old windows were designed so that you could take them apart — held together with joinery and pins — and replace or repair broken glass or rotted wood. This is a lot more ‘green’ that today’s ‘modern’ modern vinyl windows. If something breaks on a vinyl window often the only repair solution is to swap it out for a new unit — think of all that waste. And lead and asbestos can all be safely removed or mitigated by preservation specialty contractors under the guidance of EPA regulations.

Below is a brief slideshow roughly documenting how a quality sash restoration can be carried out. I really enjoyed working on this project and I hope that you will consider saving/restoring your own historic windows.

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Rainford Restorations

Category Archives: Historic Places

Blowing in the Wind — Historic Weathervanes

NBSS Distinguished Alumni Award Winner: Brent Hull PC ’93

2 Bay English Style Barn Raising at Brookwood Farm

Hand Tool Heaven — Shaker Barn at Shelburne Museum VT

Turning Ovals at the Old Schwamb Mill

Harvard Shaker Meeting House — New Slate Roof

Timber Framing at Brookwood Farm

Timber Frame Repair in Dorchester MA

Viewing History — Old State House Window Restoration

A Joiner's Guide To Traditional Woodworking and Preservation