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During a record-setting rainstorm in June 1998, Guild members and students and faculty at the Massachusetts College of Art, and friends of Laura and Rick Brown raised an unusual timber frame structure, destined for use as the Browns' artist studio and shop near Norwell, Mass. It was later christened Hands House.

We awoke to pouring rain Saturday morning that continued throughout the day and astonished everyone in its intensity and duration. Rain-proof gear proved futile by the end of the day, as we endured an onslaught of around 18" of rain that day; lightning and thunder in the late afternoon added to the drama. Spurred on by the cuisine of Claudio, the Browns' Italian son-in-law, we did manage to raise three bents, using traditional timber frame raising techniques and pulleys, rigging, brute force, and sheer determination. By Sunday afternoon, all six bents were erected.

The frame is a design that borrows from a combination of Roman tooth beam, medieval northern European timber frame, and 19th century American covered bridge construction. Here's another chapter in that story: the volunteers who helped install the copper roof on the structure.

The structure in June 1998.

Left: Guild member Eric Westergard contributed much to the success. Right: Guild members Grigg Mullen and Jim Kricker work on a section.

Susannah Kricker fiddles while Guild member Barbara Cahill and Eric work set a pan in the back. (Actually, she's an accomplished violinist.) Laura Brown helped make some of the 148 2'x8' copper pans with edges bent to exact measurements.


The traditional group photo: Ezra, Rick Brown, Eric, Ellen Gibson, Matt Hincman (from California), Barbara (in cowboy hat), Grigg, Brad, Jeanne, Susannah, Jim and Grigg III. Andy Smith (not shown) worked all of one day after working with Dave Dauerty in Conn.

The group.