A photo essay about timber frame barn restoration and rebuilding in Maine.
Post and Beam Barn Restoration - Fryeburg, Maine.
Throughout New England there are hundreds of barns, some almost fallen back to earth others ship shape and squared up – looking good. Inevitably centuries of wind, weather and time catch up and they need some help. Scott Campbell is the guy who’s been fixing these old slices of history for decades. He mostly works for folks who want a barn taken down. Scott, sometimes with his sons will carefully take an old barn down reuse and repurpose the siding, and then repair and modify the bones, giving them another life. Eventually, a new owner will hire Scott to rebuild the old post and beam skeleton on a new site. In some cases, reusing 100-year-old trees that were cut into beams in the early 1800’s. Suppose I did the math right that would make some of these posts or beams over 300 years old. The ultimate way to keep valuing the life of the tree that became those beams, posts and floors.
Photographer's notes:
As a long-time climber I really appreciate how quickly and easily these guys move around at height, wrapping a leg around a post to reach a little further, maybe stemming across a gap to pound in a peg just out of reach. Getting the right angle and moving to get unique perspectives gets my creative energy going. I actively went out to find this project, and quickly found Scott one town over from me. I approached as a potential editorial project, then it quickly found a home within the Patagonia Workwear social media feed. I’m still working to expand this story and I’m collaborating with a writer to find a publication to run the whole story of these wonderful barns and the people that work on keeping them alive.