July 14, 2017 Where’s Fort Kent?
June was a busy month for MJ Mawn and his team at the Fowler Clark Epstein Farm.? Much of the work completed to date is structural, but more visible are the envelope repairs on the barn which are now complete (except for paint).
Carpenters John Abdelnour and Tom Hart (who grew up a few blocks away from the farm) carefully re-installed all of the historic clapboards that could be salvaged.? In doing so, they noticed the back of some of the boards were painted gray ? perhaps from an earlier color scheme.? They surmised the boards may have been flipped over and re-painted.? They also discovered on two boards a stamped name and the town ?Fort Kent, Maine.? This is presumably the name is of a mill in Fort Kent that produced the boards, but unfortunately the name is difficult to make out. We?ll be researching this discovery further to try to identify the mill, but we found it interesting that the historic clapboards came from so far away; Fort Kent is way up north near the Canadian border!
Any guess to what the top says?
Over to the Fowler Clark Epstein Farm?s house, the building?s re-built chimney on the farmhouse was deconstructed and rebuilt in just two days by Aniceto Masonry, using the original bricks.? Aniceto specializes in historic masonry and has worked on many historic landmarks, including the Old North Church.
While the carpenters are busy repairing the structural deficiencies in the house, the plumbers have begun their work in the barn.? Next week the roof of the house will be replaced, and soon installation of the plank window frames built by North Bennet Street School will be installed in the farmhouse.
above: The construction of the chimney