Forest Society of Maine

Your land trust for Maine's North Woods
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
    • Committed to Diversity
    • All About FSM
    • Mission
    • F.A.Q.s
    • Staff
    • Directors and Advisors
    • COVID19 Update for FSM
  • Conserved Lands
    • FSM Conserved Lands
    • Projects Under Way
    • Caring for Conserved Lands
    • Statement of Conservation Position
  • Forests & Climate
    • FSM Conservation and Carbon Sequestration
    • Maine Voices Op-Ed
    • Maine Won’t Wait
    • Forest Carbon Task Force
    • Maine’s Carbon Budget
    • Wood’s Role in Net Zero Carbon Buildings
  • Blog & News
    • FSM in Print
  • Jobs at FSM
    • Job Openings
    • Swan Internship
  • Contact Us
  • Support FSM
    • Ways to Give
    • Financial Statement
    • FSM’s Supporters

Timber Frame Buildings Span the Past and the Future

April 24, 2019 By Annie

For this article Anna Mercier spoke with Erin Connolly, owner of Connolly & Co. Timber Frame Homes and the Maine Barn Company, a longtime FSM business supporter.

Have you ever wandered through a timber frame home or barn, the timbers stretching gracefully upward like tree trunks, the exposed wood arching like branches far above your head? These structures are part of the New England landscape in a region where wood is a popular building material and several Maine businesses cater solely to their construction. One of the first to be established was Connolly & Company Timber Frame Homes & Barns.

Erin as a young girl with her father, John, inspecting a job up-close. Photo courtesy of Erin Connolly.
Erin as a young girl with her father, John, inspecting a job up-close. Photo courtesy of Erin Connolly.

In the 1970s John Connolly, fascinated by the elegance of old joinery found in Maine’s barns, started a business building new timber frames. It was a new market back then, but over the years he has trained countless other timber framers in Maine—previous employees that have gone out on their own.

Generally, Connolly & Co. builds in New England and the East Coast but they have put up structures as far away as Colorado, Texas, and New Brunswick, Canada. They rely on Maine’s forests for Eastern white pine and hemlock, and much of their dimensional lumber comes from western Maine suppliers.

The inside of a timber frame building under construction. Photo by Erin Connolly.
The inside of a timber frame building under construction. Photo by Erin Connolly.

Today John is retired and his daughter, Erin, who says she has been balancing on timbers since she could walk, is the owner. She has been working in the business for a little more than a decade and bought it four years ago. Under her leadership the business is quickly approaching the milestone of 300 frames built. It helps that they have a lot of repeat business from happy customers, and whose word-of-mouth referrals result in orders from friends or relatives. “I love the atmosphere,” Erin says, “the design aspect and the constant difference—some people come with a complete set of architectural drawings, others just have an idea in their head.” Before officially taking over in 2015, she spent about six years working both with her father who ran the business, and the framers down in the shop. One of her favorite always-evolving skills has been learning to design buildings and use Auto CAD (computer-aided design) software as well as SketchUp. She now does most of the designing herself and gets joinery help from her foreman who learned timber framing from her father.

Maine’s timber frame structures have spanned generations and this company, under Erin’s guidance, is doing the same. Perhaps decades from now future generations will be admiring some of these handsome, sturdy structures as much as they admire the people and forests that made them possible.

A completed timber frame building located on a Maine island. Photo by Erin Connolly.
A completed timber frame building located on a Maine island. Photo by Erin Connolly.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Blog Posts

  • Maine Voices: Our forests offer a valuable buffer against climate change November 2, 2022
  • Remembering four champions of Maine’s great forests July 28, 2022
  • A Bird’s-Eye View of Conservation July 12, 2022

Maine Forests & Carbon

… "The first step in mitigating global climate change is keeping forests as forests.” – Paul Catanzaro

FSM’s Latest Blog Posts

  • Maine Voices: Our forests offer a valuable buffer against climate change November 2, 2022
  • Remembering four champions of Maine’s great forests July 28, 2022
  • A Bird’s-Eye View of Conservation July 12, 2022

Maine Forests & Carbon

Maine’s Forests Reduce Carbon Pollution Most of us can point to tangible ways in which our … Read More...

Your land trust for Maine’s North Woods

Forest Society of Maine conserves Maine's forestlands in a manner that sustains their ecological, economic, cultural, and recreational values.

Contact Information

 
Main Office
115 Franklin St., 3rd Floor,
Bangor, Maine 04401
(207) 945-9200
info@fsmaine.org

Signup for our E-News

Join E-News

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Forest Society of Maine · All Rights Reserved

Built with RainStorm Foundations & WordPress