On and off since 2019, PTF has been involved with the restoration of the Tuttle Barn at the Desert of Maine in Freeport. The new owners, Mela and Doug Heestand, have transformed the Desert to be more welcoming for families and more clearly interpret the unique ecology of this site. This past year, we restored a historic cape for use as a visitor’s center and house museum out in the middle of their piney woods. We repaired and reassembled a late 18th-century cape frame that had been carefully disassembled and stored for more than twenty years in Swanzey, NH. It is nearly identical to the Tuttle family house that had been on the Desert property and burned down many years ago. In February, the Tuttle House project was featured on the season 3 finale of Restoration Road. You can watch the episode on Discovery or HBO.

This is most of the undercarriage (first floor) frame of the house assembled at our shop in Nottingham, NH. That big square opening in the center is where the chimney mass used to be. It is incredibly unusual to retain any original perimeter sill in a building this old. I tend to think of sills as sacrificial elements, like roofing, or clapboards.

This is the roof frame assembled in the yard in Nottingham. In the foreground, you can see part of the undercarriage framing. The roof is a principal rafter, common purlin frame. We had to replace four of the rafters, the lighter colored wood. Those were sawn on a mill, and then surface-hewn.

Here is the frame after it was assembled on a new foundation on the Desert of Maine property. Those huge hewn flared posts are typical for a cape of this age (we’re guessing about 1770). The larger right bay holds the two front chambers, the chimney mass, and the entry hall. The smaller left bay holds the kitchen, birthing room, and loft stairs. It is a rugged frame, with continuous ties distributed approximately 3′ on center along the full length of the eave plate.

Dan and Brian sheathing the roof. Half of the front plate was replaced and joined to the original half with a halved and bladed scarf, on edge. Each pair of rafters lands directly over one of the continuous tie beams, and each post joins to the aligning tie beam and rafter with an English tying joint.

This is one of the front corner posts. The interior of the building will only be partially finished, with only the paneling, trim, and cabinetry that was saved with the frame. Here, some of the original post casing has been re-applied to the post. The lovely hewn surface of the tie beams will remain visible.

The kitchen retained most of its paneling and doors. The walls were lettered and the panels were numbered. This antique paint surface will be maintained, rather than repainted. The loft stairs are behind this door, the original rise and run of each stair visible in the paint lines.

This is the rear interior wall of the kitchen. Some panels were reused from another room to fill out the wall, and these were painted the same shade of white.

This is front right chamber. The painted floor was removed from the original house, as was the wide wainscot. The wainscot does not meet in the corners, and likely intersected a corner cabinet.

This is partially floored loft, with a first period bed. The combination of rafters, collar ties, struts, and continuous tie beams creates an incredibly rigid roof frame.

This is the borning room, with its original paneling, and an early paint color that was in place when it was disassembled. The closet was painted a bright salmon pink. The feather edge and grooves on the paneling were hand-planed, so the joiners weren’t concerned with the sides of the panels being parallel, and used as much of the board as they could.

Daron Smith and Tom Glynn built this door and sidelights based on the early photo of the original Tuttle farmhouse. The stiles and rails are joined with pinned through-mortise-and-tenons, and the solid pine panels are beveled and floating.

Daron and Tom also built the window frames and sash by hand at our shop in Nottingham. The stiles and rails are mortise-and-tenoned, and the muntins meet the sash frame with coped tenons. The upper sash is fixed and the lower sash is operable. Windows of this age would not have been weighted.

The Tuttle House frame finished. This was such a fun and creative project and a totally unique site in Maine. This summer, the building will be open and interpreted so that visitors can learn more about how it was built and how it was used. Visit Desert of Maine for more information.