North Bennet Street School: A Good Life Built By Hand

Wood-working room, North Bennet Street School, Photographer, A. H. Folsom, 1926

San Francisco's Heirloom Builders President Zach Heir brings the craft to construction. Zach, an East Coast native, came from a family of artists and studied Preservation Carpentry at the esteemed North Bennet Street School in Boston. In 1881, philanthropist Pauline Agassiz Shaw co-founded it as America's first trade school to help North End's recent immigrants train for work. By the 1980s, NBSS switched its focus to promoting traditional crafts and trades. Today, along with the Preservation Carpentry program, they offer Cabinetry, Cabinet & Furniture Making, Locksmithing, and other decorative arts. Zach learned the time-honored skills and values of fine craftsmanship.

Architectural modeling room, 1917

The school's pioneering history began when Southern and Eastern European immigrants flooded into industrialized America. North Bennet Street School provided welcome vocational courses for the immigrants who encountered xenophobia from native-born Americans. Mrs. Shaw brought Sloyd teachers from Sweden who taught students the importance of craft and hand skills. The school countered the mass production of the Industrial Revolution with a series of woodworking projects given in increasing order of complexity, each resulting in a handmade household object. Other early influences on curriculum were John Ruskin and William Morris, leaders of the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

Preservation Carpentry students reproduce Frontispiece of the Hancock Mansion

NBSS's Preservation Carpentry program continues in this tradition. Concentrating on pre-20th century New England home construction, the curriculum teaches students to stabilize endangered buildings, preserve architectural details, and recreate historical elements. One of their projects was to reproduce the frontispiece of the Hancock Mansion for The Bostonian Society. The estate, built in 1737, was home to American Founding Father John Hancock. Sadly, the landmark fell to the wrecking ball in 1863, but some components survived, including the twelve-panel front door. The Bostonian Society wanted a permanent way to display the door, and PC replicated the frontispiece.