City Barn, Sanford, ME c. 1800
This project concerns a piece of land in which McDougal Orchards bought a piece of land across the street form their property from the city in which housed two very old and dis-repaired barns. These barns had various uses but a significant time was spent when the city used them for their own farm where people of lower means could come and work in exchange for food. The larger barn was deemed to be too far gone so it was taken down by salvagers. We took down the smaller barn this past spring, tagging and documenting the parts to reconstruct it in the fall. The takedown and re-raising was done with help from the Building Trades program and Sanford Regional Technical Center.
The reconstruction featured variety of timber fixes done in accordance with traditional timber frame practices. If we deemed an area or member too compromised from rot/stress or wear we replaced it with a piece that mirrored both its dimension and function. We then finished it as in was originally done, with two layers of rough sawn sheathing, staggering the boards for water tight protection. A front door was put on using salvaged strap hinge and pintle hardware and two sets of swinging doors were installed at the basement level. All wood came from the property and was milled by a local sawyer.
We look forward to seeing its reemergence into yet again being a functioning farm building.
