This really old reproduction house has a fresh neighbor

By Steve Landwehr
STAFF WRITER

July 08, 2009 06:00 am

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IPSWICH — Two houses are taking shape on the War Memorial Green just behind the Visitor Center in Ipswich. Most of the time, the whine of power saws and whir of electric drills is muted, replaced by the rhythmic thunk, thunk, thunk of broadaxes, adzes and splitting froes.

No power tools allowed here, thank you very much.

Architect Chris Doktor said the local building community wanted to do its part for the celebration of the town's 375th anniversary this year, and it soon became apparent professionals needed to get involved if the effort were to be successful.

But many of the 80 or so volunteers providing labor for the construction of a replica 17th-century settler's home are inexperienced. And even professional builders are more used to wielding a nail gun than a draw knife.

While traditional construction methods are being adhered to, Doktor said not to expect a museum-quality reproduction.

"A lot of this is more about the process than the buildings themselves," Doktor said. "The purpose of this project is to build a community."

When John Winthrop and his party arrived in what the natives called Agawam in 1633, they didn't have time to put up fancy homes. They needed shelter and they needed it fast.

Only a handful of the party would have been woodwrights, Doktor said, so they would have had to show the others how to build a house.

That's basically what's happening with today's settler's home.

Not far away, a 21st-century home is coming together a lot faster. By contrast, its basic ingredients — sills, floor joists, rafters and wall studs — arrive at the job site already cut to width and thickness. They only need to be cut to length before being nailed in place.

The newer home is meant to be a showcase for environmentally beneficial building techniques and materials, which in some respects makes it more like its older cousin than it might seem.

Early settlers had no choice but to use building materials that were close at hand, but today, conscientious builders are making an effort to employ locally obtained materials.

In keeping with its heritage, the reproduction house is being made from lumber obtained nearby. Zumi's coffee and ice cream store owner Umesh Bhuju supplied the pine for the timber framing from his lot in Topsfield, and 375th Anniversary Committee Chairman Nat Pulsifer provided the cedar for the home's cedar shakes.

Jim Markham, who owns a sawmill in Essex, is also suppling some free lumber.

In the 21st-century home, organizers hope to take advantage of what is called embedded energy.

An old trellis near the Visitor Center has seen better days, and there's talk of taking it down and using some of the lumber in the new home, avoiding expending energy to produce and transport new wood.

Jay Esty is the team captain for the 17th-century home, and proof that the project is drawing interest beyond Ipswich. Esty is from nearby Newbury, and while he's worked on other timber-frame buildings, he's never started from scratch.

"The initial appeal was hand-hewing," he said, referring to shaping square and rectangular timbers from round trees. "But the reward has been in the community aspect of it. You get new people coming in every night."

Resident Bob Weatherall is coordinating the project along with Doktor. He said that while the majority of those people have little or no experience with 17th-century building techniques, they've been getting the hang of it.

Doktor said he hopes to have at least the bare outline of the 17th-century home in place by July 12, when the Ipswich Goes Green celebration will be held. At the end of the summer, the two homes might be auctioned off, he said.

But, as he said, this project is about process as much as progress, and Esty said he's found the process a pleasant distraction from his workday world.

"It's a reprieve, in many ways," he said.

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