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North Bennett Street School students dismantle 18th‑century house for relocation and reconstruction
Summary
North Bennett Street School’s preservation carpentry program is dismantling a house whose front section dates to 1724–1725; students catalog and tag framing, flooring and finish materials to enable salvage, storage and accurate reassembly at a new site.
Brock Leyendecker, instructor of carpentry at the North Bennett Street School, described a preservation project in which students dismantled a house whose front section dates to about 1724–1725 and prepared it for relocation and reconstruction roughly 2.5 miles away.
Leyendecker explained how the program catalogs and tags salvaged elements — brass number tags correspond to locations and, where necessary, pieces are labeled for east/west/north/south orientation — and stores materials to enable rebuilding. He described efforts to salvage siding, plank sheathing, the timber frame, windows, doors, paneling and masonry, and noted that some timbers are scribe timber framing that must be reassembled in the same order to preserve fit and structural geometry.
The project is an example of conservation‑focused deconstruction and an educational opportunity: preservation carpentry students performed dismantling, cataloging and restoration work that will be integrated with carpentry students building an addition and modern systems before reassembly. Leyendecker said the team hopes to have the original timber frame standing by the end of the summer.
