19th century village offers a timber framing class

ORRINGTON, Maine (WABI) - If you want to learn how to build a timber frame barn, look no further than Orrington’s Curran Village.

Starting today, the museum is holding a weeklong class on how to do just that.

The class goes over building mortise and tenon joints, a method of jointing wood in favor of nails and screws.

Exposed timber trusses are gaining popularity again in newer constructions as builders like the character and open-air feel that this structure can provide.

Students of the class are planning on implementing the style and skills into projects of their own.

A tour of the village got things kicked off on the first day of the class.

”It’s expensive to hire someone to do that type of work. So the motivation for a lot of these students is that they want to create a structure like that for themselves because, well, there’s a certain satisfaction in creating your own home from scratch.” said museum director Robert Schmick

Power tools were left at home as antique hand tools were used to teach the craft that went into the traditional construction.

A foundation is already poured for where the class will build an open pavilion utilizing the skills they have gained.

This is just part of the village’s offerings with a full list of all of their events and classes available on their website at www.curranhomestead.org