Posts Tagged with colonial timber frame

A visit to Old Salem Village

Posted on June 27, 2007 by Gabel Holder

I recently attended the annual symposium of the Traditional Timber Frame Research and Advisory Group (TTRAG) held at Old Salem Village in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Salem was founded in 1763 by Moravian settlers, who came down from Pennsylvania. Old Salem Village is an incredible place to visit, with extremely well-preserved 18th century buildings everywhere. The conference attendees were allowed to crawl around in the attics of several of the oldest buildings and see some nice Germanic timber framing. It was a great chance to see some dusty old historic timber frames!

For me the highlight of the attic tour was the Home Moravian Church, built in 1800. The timber framing in the roof is impressive and the view from the bell tower was great. Another great old timber framed building is the Single Brother's House. It was built in 1769, and is a half-timbered building with brick infill between exposed hand hewn timbers. An all brick expansion was built in 1786. The entire building has a nice Germanic roof system built with mostly hand hewn timber and sash sawn timber, with a few pit sawn members.

In addition to the well-preserved architecture, there are many museums, shops and artisans to visit. If you are ever in central North Carolina, Old Salem Village is definitely worth a visit.

Tagged: timber frame church, hand hewn, north carolina, timber frame, historic timber framing, ttrag, traditional timber framing, colonial timber frame  |  0 comments

Hewing, Riving, and Scribing

Posted on May 04, 2007 by Gabel Holder

We recently built a historic reproduction timber frame for Charles Towne Landing State Park in Charleston, South Carolina to be used in their interpretation of the 1670 era original settlement. The 15' by 30' servant's quarters was designed based on archaeological evidence from the original site and thorough historic research. The frame is a single story with a sleeping loft and has sill timbers that are supported by earth-fast cedar poles. Around 25 slaves and servants would have lived in this house.
One of the most exciting things to me about this project was the opportunity for us to use historic techniques to layout and cut the hand hewn and riven timbers for the frame. The project's specifications called for the timber frame to be scribed (a traditional carpentry technique used until the 19th century) and for all visible tool marks to be authentic hand tool marks. What a great opportunity!
Having recently completed several scribed projects, we were very excited by the chance to use these methods on a historically authentic timber frame using all hand-converted material. Our job was to supply about one third of the hand converted materials, scribe and cut the joinery, raise the frame, and install the hand riven oak clapboards. We worked with 4 different species of timber, hewing oak for purlins, pine for floor joists, and cedar for the exposed chimney framing, riving cedar for studs, and hewing one side and peeling the cypress pole rafters. We also made the riven and hand drawn white oak pegs for the frame.
After the timbers were converted, we scribed wall frames, cross frames, trusses, and roof frames together. Then we were off to Charleston to raise the frame and put the roof on. What a great feeling to start with a pile of logs and finish with a building!
If you're ever in Charleston, I recommend a visit to Charles Towne Landing State Park. It is an interesting and enjoyable place to wander around and they do a great job of showing us where and how the settlers of the South's largest colonial port city lived.

Tagged: colonial timber frame, charles towne landing, timber frame, hand hewing, hand hewn, scribing, historic reproduction, south carolina, hand hewn timber frame  |  0 comments