Restoring Good Things of the Past

A number of restored historic buildings are among the buildings that comprise the Traditional Crafts Village and Heritage Farms at Homestead Heritage. Over the years, we have moved these buildings from various parts of the United States and rebuilt them at our farm.

Our community’s use of these buildings did not grow out of a desire to live in the past but to preserve the good things of the past, the present and the future. In their original settings these structures were what we would call “working buildings.” And now restored in our agricultural community, they remain working buildings today, though some of their uses have been changed to meet our working needs.

They are from different places and represent different periods of our country’s history. Even if you have never visited our farm, you may find their stories fascinating and come to know and appreciate these old places like we have.

What makes these restored buildings unique in comparison to modern structures?

They are all what are known as “timber framed.” Instead of the light two-by-four framing of modern buildings, these buildings were hand-crafted with heavy timbers.

The Process of Timber Framing

The first settlers in America came from European countries that had largely been stripped of their trees for building and firewood, before the industrial age of coal, oil and gas. Arriving on the Atlantic coast of America, those early settlers were awed by virgin forests that had never been touched by the ax. They found massive white pine in the north and yellow pine in the south. And there were hardwood forests of many species including red and white oaks and chestnut trees over six feet in diameter.

The process of building a timber frame began when the owner, who most likely also farmed, decided on the size building that would suit his needs. Often times he would hire a man who built timber frames for his livelihood, a "joiner". Of all the historic buildings we have moved, we have never found two of the same dimensions. They were custom built to suit the needs of the individual owners.

Harvesting Lumber

The actual work began when the owner felled the trees, most likely from his own land. This was often a winter job, when farmers had off from their seasonal farming and there was snow enough to skid the logs out of the forest, but not such deep snow as to prevent the horses from getting around. These logs were not only wide, they were long, and beams up to sixty feet were often incorporated into these buildings.

Squaring and Shaping the Logs

The next step was to square the logs into beams with a broad ax. After this, the joiner would arrive and cut the beams to length and, where necessary, cut tenons on the ends of the beams. They then bored out with an auger and squared with a chisel the corresponding mortises where the tenons fit. Finally they drilled holes in all the parts for the tree nails or trunnels to hold the tenons into their mortises, and also mark the adjoining timbers with Roman numerals or "marriage mark" to indicate which parts went together.

Frame Raising

Now all was ready for a frame raising. For this the whole community turned out and helped. Most likely it would only take a day, and a barn would be up or a house frame raised and roofed.

Current Restored Buildings

Having learned how these historic buildings were hand-crafted, now we can set out on a tour of them individually.