The Mushroom Factor

When we purchased our property more than 20 years ago, we had no idea of the architectural gem we were acquiring. Call it unobserved naivety on our part, but we lived here several months before noticing bricks and timber-framing beneath the white siding covering one of our barns.

Because May is Historic Preservation Month, it’s important to pay tribute to this barn and its noteworthy architectural style known as fachwerk.

Fachwerk, or framework, is the German name for timber-frame architecture found throughout Europe, particularly in areas where timber was in short supply. Builders used hewed-lumber for the skeletal framework and then filled in the remainder of the wall with burned or dried brick.

According to William Tischler, in his article Fachwerk Construction in the German Settlements of Wisconsin¹, fachwerk was popular among German Lutherans who emigrated during the 1800’s from Germany’s northern areas of Brandenburg and Pomerania and then settled in Dodge, Jefferson, Washington and Osaukee Counties of Wisconsin. They built houses, threshing barns, stables, woodsheds, granaries and even churches in the fachwerk style of construction.

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Got a place that matters to you? Want to show others?

May is Preservation Month and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has an interesting theme for this year’s campaign—This Place Matters. According to their site, the campaign “is designed to help people share the place that matter to them, wherever these places happen to be. By simply printing a sign and taking a picture, you can tell the story about a place that matters to you.”

To date, 60 people or organizations have posted pictures of places that matter and brief explanations of why. Others have gone even further and posted YouTube videos. From public buildings, to homes, to bridges, this is an interesting collection of what people are doing to preserve places that matter to our heritage and our history.

So, do you have a place that matters to you? Post it on This Place Matters!

The July issue of Wood Magazine has an interesting article that holds credence to the level of craftsmanship we find in many things today, whether it’s our houses or the furniture we put in them. The article, written by Bob Wilson and Megan Stotmeister, is entitled “Crafting Keepsake Furniture in a Throwaway World.”

The gist of the article is an answer to the question “Is it worth it to spend hours in the workshop handcrafting your own furniture when you can find instant gratification with trendy, relatively low-cost furniture from a store?”

One of my children answers this question from the same viewpoint that many Wood Magazine readers did. She says handcrafted furniture has spoiled her. She looks at furniture her friends have purchased from reputable, expensive companies and finds it no where near the quality of pieces made by her brothers, father and grandfather.

Once again, my child is right (such is the case with parenthood).

In today’s throwaway world, as the article says, furniture is massed produced with staples, fiberboard and melamine. Even the so-called “finer” furniture from expensive stores is often constructed with lesser-quality woods and poor joinery. “Disposable furniture” is a term the article uses to describe this furniture and the reality that within five to seven years it will need to be replaced.

Compare that to a piece made by a hobbiest or professional artisan who spends days, weeks, even months choosing the right wood, carefully cutting and joining parts, and finishing with multiple layers of a durable coating. This piece shows pride in workmanship. It’s a labor of love. And not only has the artisan created something that will last during his or her lifetime, it will also become a treasured heirloom to those following.

Now that we have a child living in Washington D.C., we enjoy regular visits to what is probably our nation’s most fascinating city. We’ve hit the monuments, the museums and, oh, the restaurants! Thankfully, D.C. is a walking town and we’re able to work off what usually is some majorly excessive, good eating. (Note-to-self: function rather than fashionable form is a necessity in the clothing and shoe department.)

So, while we’re doing all this walking, my favorite thing to see is the architecture. As a lover of old houses, I find the rowhouse especially intriguing, partly because of its historical representation and partly because its not a common style here in the Midwest.

When I accompanied my daughter on her housing hunt a few years ago, I had the opportunity to see the interiors of several rowhouses. Like most old houses, they had architectural elements you just don’t find in newly built homes and apartments—parquet floors, beautiful woodwork and bow-front windows. And like many old houses, these particular buildings needed lots of work and money!

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