Today in the office, one of our staff was kind enough to share their visit to Eastfield Village (map)near Nassau, NY, east
of Albany. The village is the result of the preservation efforts of Don Carpentier. Up-to-date, Don has
painstakingly documented, dismantled, transported, and re built 26 buildings from the late 18th and early 19th
century buildings on an 8 acre parcel of the eastern field of his family farm. There is no electricity or running
water in the village, and the parking area is on the other side of a field. This is the third trip for our presenter, who is very fond of attending workshops there learning about early american tinsmithing, interiors, home-made oil paint,
masonry construction, blacksmithing, and woodworking. It’s not only buildings that are preseved here, but the
articles of early american life as well. All the buildings contain actual furniture and implements from that time. Not
reproductions, not musuem displays. The workshop experience is completely hands-on, and allows one to
contribute to the existence of the village itself while increasing their knowledge of traditional building techniques.
You can read about it yourself at the Great American Craftsman web site (Eastfield Village). There are some other institutions such as this in the U.S., one being the Shelborne Museum in Vermont (direct link to building map), Or you can visit the site of the Preservation Trades Network.
And if that weren’t enough to show you, there’s the Early American Industries Assoc.