Framing the Cabildo Roof Livestock .Heritage
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
-_.-.,~ A Quarterl Journal of Historical Preservation Volume 2, Number 2 Preserving American Framing the Cabildo Roof Livestock .Heritage Aound the world the extinction ofspecies proceeds at an alarming rate as deforestation, agricultural development, human population expansion and ecologi cal degridation continue. Even the farm yards, pasturesandfields ofNorthAmerica no longer support the diverse livestock breeds of 50 to 100 years ago. About fifteen years ago, agricultural historians in Massachusetts who had rec reated early agricultural habitats at Old Sturbridge Village and Plymoth Planta tion were hard pressed to find authentic livestock to stock their recreations. The American Minor Breeds Conservancy (AMBC) was conceived out ofthe recogni tion of a need to preserve the vanishing American livestock diversity. In this short time AMBC has grown rapidly to become The Cabildo, Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana, as itappearedbeforethe 1988fire. Photocourtesy active throughut America and has begun ofKoch & Wilson Architects, New Orleans. to go worldwide in efforts to preserve en dangered breeds. "The procedures ofFrench scribe layout could not be more unlike the square rule In 1985 AMBC began a comprehen practice used today in most American shops. Where modern American timber framing is sive list of American livestock breeds to a patchwork quilt oftradition and invention. French scribe is a tapestry, a whole piece of identify those which are in danger of ex cloth woven over centuries ofcontinuous practice." tinction. Aftercareful considerationofcen sus results, the following definitions have -Ed Levin, Timber Framing, 1992 been developed. RARE ... Cattle and horse breeds with less than 200 registrations per year. About 150yemagoiu muoh ofAmeri..a new""ternoftimberframing'alled Sheep, goat, and pigbreeds with less than square rule replaced the older European method known as scribe rule. In studyingand 500 per year. documenting the old barns ofNew England and the Northeast there is good evidence of MINOR ... Cattle, Sheep, goat, and scribe rule in thejoiningofthe timbers and in the marks scribedby the mastercarpenter horsebreeds with less than 1,000registra to guide the cutting of the joinery and the final erection of the frame. These marks are tions per year. Pig breeds with less than keysto our understandingofNew World scriberules. Thesehistoric techniques wereoral 2,000 per year. traditions developed over generations of carpenters and were put aside and forgotten FERAL ... Stocks known to have when the new system ofsquare rule was adopted here. been running wild for at least 100 years Detailed drawings and plans, numbers and fractions describing degrees of angle with no known introducitons of outside and measurements oflength wereofnouseto thescriberulecarpenters. From a few basic blood. measurements established on a layout floor and without a ruler or tape measure the WATCH ... Breeds whose registra carpenters moved and matched the timbers in an orderly and deliberate choreography, tions over a 15-year period have shown a leveling, plumbing and scribing and joinery. Finally the tibers were coded with a series steady decline or where registrations are ofchisel cuts or the marks ofthe boss's race knife, locating their position in the finished less than 5,000 per year. frame. Many of these breeds are associated Recently a group ofexperienced American timber framers had the opportunity to with a geographic area, a particular time work under the direction of a French timber framer, Frederic Brillant, a member of period, or an area settled by a Compagnons du Devoir, the ancient French trade guild, who is trained in the method Continued on page 7 Continued on page 5 PAGE TWO SPRING 1992 and appreciate its wealth of infonnation CommunalStudiesOrganization.Theaddress and commentary. for both is, Center for communal Studies, Withover 1,000 membership and grow University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, ing nationwide, S.W.E.A.T. certainly repre IN 47712. Good people doing good work. TO THE EDITOR: sents a group active inlivinghistory. Thatyou - Sincerely, include workers in all the old crafts with such Well done on Liuing History. I have a good representation from across America is Bro. Johannes Zingendorf some feeling for what ithas been like getting to the credit ofyour Council ofTwelve. RDBox 1449 started, and wish you the best ofluck. Pitman, PA 17964 Enclosed is our current Directory, the Peter Sinclair FallRag, an info sheetonS.W.E.AT. (Society Editor, Publisher & TO THE EDITOR: of Workers in Early Arts and Trades) and a Old Hack, 61 membership form in case you run into some Dear Peter, . one who wants to join. TO THE EDITOR: Thanksfor yourseed saleletterandthe copies of Lfuing Hi,story. A nice issue that, Fred H. Bair, Jr. Thanks for your letter about our work. except for some advertisements, I read cover Wordwright & Odd Hack Christiansbrunn Brotherhood is an active re to cover. S.W.E.AT. ligious organization, not a replica ofone. The With bestWishes on your seed projects. 606 Lake Lena Blvd. Brotherhood was founded as a Harmonist ~. Auburndale, FL 33823 group. Bob F. Becker The cloister is a 63-acre farm located in Rushville, New York' DEAR FRED. the MahantongoValleyofCentral Pennsylva nia. It is run without a hierarchy ofpriests or DEAR BOB: Thanks for your nice letter. Enclosed is ministerse. Each is equal in all things. This $8 for a S.W.KA.T. membership beliefis based inthe German Pietists, Sectar Let me guess ... it was either the I'm grateful to learn ofyour organization. I ians and Quakers ofearly Pennsylvania. Alcohol in the Classified, the CanadianArma enjoyed reading your Fall Rag and We are an historically based cloister. ment Manufactur~rin the ALFHAM Report We plow with oxen (a rare German/Austrian or theTobacco onpagetwo. Franklyitwasthe Breed-Pinzgauers), light with candles, haul Credit Cards this time I found slightly offen water from the spring and preserve log and sive. timber-frame buildings in the valley by docu Advertising is a controversial subject menting them and moving others to the clois these days what with the U.S. Surgeon Gen Publisher/Editor ter and rebuilding them. Our devotion is ex eral directing his forces against an army of - Peter Sinclair pressed in our work, Tsu Bluga iss tsu baeta cool camels, but you're right; I should set P.O. Box 202 (to plow is to pray). We believe in self-suffi standards and I respect the information and West Hurley, NY 12491 ciency. opinions you share. Must be the ALFHAM in (914) 338-0257 We have a strong outreach program you. Graphic Design with lcoal schools and do many historical How's this, I will refuse ads for Ozone typeset~/layout festivals showing how we make our clothing depleting substances, American Indian arti Carol E. Wickwire from flax. We will be back at Landis Valley facts and 18th century New England tomb Wickwire Graphics Farm Museum this year for their festivals. stones. Living History will also support the (9.14) 679·7562 We were recentlyblessed to receive the dona National Quilting Association and the Logo Art tion ofan entire printing shop, all hand-oper SchoharieValleyPeacemakersquiltingguild, Robert Bissell ated. With it we will soon be publishing a by not accepting advertising from the Panama Tile Co. monthlynewletterfor ourassociate members, Smithsonian Institution for any ofthe 30,000 (212) 673-6319 those who live off the cloister. handmade copies of historic American quilts Copy Editor Our member organizations are the Fel they plan to have reproduced in China. They Denise Martin lowship for IntentionalCommunities, andthe will be retailing them at $200 to $500 each, a (212) 679-6319 price they could not match with native labor. Inaddition, Liv ingHistoryawardsits Second Annual Boo boo Award to those hard working indi viduals in the Wash- ~ ington office of the "( Smithsonianwhoori P. O. Box 707 ~~~~b.~ Dresden. Tennessee 38225·0707 ginated and perpetu 141~*&[']31~[ili.]:t'!113.1 "Famous Since 1940" ated this policy. WE SPECIALIZE IN ALL TYPES ~ . OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS! ~-Write For Samples And Catalog '1!iIBmI Sincerely, Peter Include $1.00 For Shipping And Handling P.S.-The sale of seeds has been slow this spring, butthe sowingofthe tomatoseeds you suggested have brought forth the first :Z.lm.l.m~i.tJ FRED STOKER & SONS, INC. pale shoots of two heirloom varieties. c====;;M=A=';;L=T=O=:====;;,IP. O. BOX 707 . L H DRESDEN, TN 38225·0707 SPRING 1992 PAGE THREE Traditional TiDlberfrallle Group Meets About 25 members of the Timber Framers Guild met in January for two daysinNorthfield,Massachusetts, toshare information on historic timber framing relativetoprojects theyhavebeen working on. The Traditional Timber Frame Re search and Advisory Group which was formed in 1990 has set the following eight goals. 1. To saveandlorsurveyold andunique traditionally timber-framed buildings. 2. To develop a survey form and checklisttobeusedincatalogingold build . ings. 3. To contact appropriate related groups to make them aware ofthe groups existence and its services. 4. To develop methods to examine the evolution of timber framing, such as the transition from scribe rule to square rule in North America. 5. To develop a shared archive. 6. To create appropriate restoration policies. 7. To promote the use of traditional materialsandjoineryincontemporarytim ber framing. 8. Topursuefundingfrom allsources to achieve the aforementioned goals. The participants come from many places inNorthAmerica;theirexperiences included the study, restoration and repli Kruck Frame drawing by Jack Sobon. Farmer by RobertBiBBel. cation of barns, bridges, and chruches. Newman Gee from Maine brought with him a knee of tamarack wood, an L setts, submitted a short paper concerning scribe rule and lap joints, the horizontal shaped piece about 4 feet long, which he a 1981 report of the Council for British timbercalledthecolIarcouldbeconntected had cut in a local swamp. The knee, the Archaeology. A marked contrast to Continued on next page strongestpiece ofangled lumber available, America's recent and slow-growing inter is formed by the lower trunk and an ex est in its historic timber framing, the re tendedroot.