We believe the traditional trades and the buildings they have produced are both our heritage and our responsibility.
Our interest is in keeping the buildings themselves, as well as the traditional trades that built them, alive and meaningful for many generations to come.
Restoring a landmark Blockhouse constructed during the war of 1812.
Our Beginning
In America's mad rush of development in the late 19th century and early 20th century, huge amounts of knowledge about the trades, traditional building practices, techniques, quality, and aesthetics was lost. By working hands-on in the Timber Frame trade since the early 1980s, we have developed a substantial portfolio of applied knowledge. Documenting, repairing, disassembling, re-raising, and researching structures and their joinery has allowed us a unique look directly into the past.
“Preserving the traditional trades is important.”
— Rudy R. Christian, owner
Conservation {keeping buildings useful} is important because it provides insight into the past, which is our access to understanding the society in which we live and the culture we have created. People who are stewards of historic properties come to realize that maintaining them requires the same skills as building them in the first place. People with children or grandchildren want the world we are passing on to them to contain the works of great people and great minds who have been living and working in it for millennia. The presence of these great trades and the artifacts of their production is stimulating to children’s minds and challenges them to do good work.
Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village field school, 2006. The village's Granary building was fully restored in the course of this project.
Education
In recent years, the trades have begun to re-emerge. Christian & Son, Inc. has been involved at the forefront of trades education throughout that time. Through associations with organizations providing AIA continuing education credits, we are now able to help provide trades education that is not only relevant in this age, but of measurable academic value to students engaged in the programs.