#HTE

Tools & Craft #89: Top-Level Architectural Woodwork at Boston’s Old South Church

During a recent trip to Boston I didn’t see any interesting furniture, it was just not that sort of trip. We saw friends, ate, walked around, entertained the kid, and ate some more. We did however, stop at Old South Church and got an eyeful of top class architectural woodworking from 1875 (The congregation began in the 17th century but the building is 19th century).

The interior of the church is made almost entirely of wood, with wood beams supporting the roof. The carvings on the pews and paneling are pretty typical for church architecture of the time, but the wooden tower in the center of the church was a surprise. I assume it was built to give light and ventilation to the church. These days, freshly restored, the tower is something special. Aside from the general detailing of the wooden beams, clearly pegged together and in many cases detailed with elegant stop chamfers, the tower gives focus to the woodwork, and when you look directly up at it has a rather charming roof decorated in stars.

Apologies for my low-res photos; below are some better images taken as screenshots from the following link. The church has a fantastic, high-resolution interactive 360 panorama you can play with here.

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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.