:: rawblogXport ::

:: Sunday, April 18, 2004 ::

Razing spirits By David W. Smith, Burlington Union, MA
Babcock spent the next 20 years razing and raising barns until the late-70s, when he took on a project in Virginia - a barn associated with the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center. The project was featured in Yankee magazine, and suddenly Babcock and the art of timber framing were everywhere.

'That article woke up the whole country,' said Babcock, who has been profiled in national magazines, interviewed for countless television and radio programs and even been featured on a postage stamp.

During the Great Depression the art of barn framing died out completely, he explained. Impoverished Americans opted for cheaper building techniques. Now, there is a healthy number of carpenters using the old methods, he said. Babcock has worked on hundreds of barns, including nearby projects in Dedham and Framingham.

His research has expanded knowledge about ancient building techniques. For example, he helped prove the Star of David symbol, with two intertwined triangles, was actually a marking used hundreds of years before the birth of Christ to produce straight timbers and allow carpenters to join tie beams correctly.

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