Building Tradition
Our Timber Framing Workshop Experience
Last month, we invited the community to engage hands-on with the craft of timber framing. We hosted the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts’ second-year timber framing class, and ran a one-day public workshop led by timber framer Dawson Willsey. Both groups contributed towards the completion of a scissor truss for a future building at The Brown Homestead. This article summarizes what those events looked like, explores the value of passing on traditional craft knowledge, and explains why involving the community in the evolution of The Brown Homestead mattered to us.
Satisfied workshop participants posing behind the two assembled scissor trusses.
This year, the first day of Fall was accompanied by exciting times for The Brown Homestead. Along with the sights of a changing season, falling leaves and golden hues, came new sounds echoing through the property: the thuds of mallets, the scraping of chisels and the roar of chain mortisers.
On Monday, September 22nd, we kicked off the first phase of construction for a three season pavilion we are working on adding to our site. From the start, we knew this would be more than a new structure. We wanted to invite the community into the process, using it as an opportunity to engage people hands-on with traditional trades. For this first phase, the focus was timber framing.
This first phase of the project included contributions from two separate groups of eager learners. First, we planned a weeklong program in collaboration with our Willowbank partners, offering their second-year students (as part of their scheduled coursework) an opportunity to learn about timber framing by planning, cutting, and assembling pieces of the structure over the span of five days. Second, we organized a one-day workshop on Saturday, September 27th, where community members paid to take part in an intense, full day of hands-on learning.
Willowbank students witness instructor Dawson Willsey’s chain mortiser demonstration.
Timber Framing History and Relevance
Timber framing produces structures that are robust, sustainable, and rooted in history, while enriching today’s built environment with lessons from the past. Today, the craft balances heritage and innovation. Hand tools preserve the precision and artistry of traditional joinery, while selective use of machines like chain mortisers makes the work more efficient and accessible. This balance ensures that heritage skills remain alive and relevant, while also proving their value in modern construction.
Timber framing is also one of the oldest and most enduring building traditions, evidenced in some of Niagara’s earliest colonial-era buildings. Many of these structures still stand today, demonstrating the resilience of both the material and the craft. While modern construction often prioritizes speed and cost, timber framing offers lessons in sustainability, repairability, and longevity.
For some great resources on learning more about timber framing check out these books:
Benson, Tedd & Gruber, James. Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of A Forgotten Craft
Newman, Rupert. Oak-Framed Buildings
Sobon, Jack A. Build A Classic Timber-Framed House
Sobon, Jack A. Hand-Hewn: The Traditions, Tools, and Enduring Beauty of Timber Framing
The Pavilion: Our Vision
The pavilion represents more than a physical addition to The Brown Homestead. It is an extension of our mission to connect people with heritage in tangible, meaningful ways. By using traditional crafts like timber framing in this building process, we are creating a gathering space for future programs and events while simultaneously embodying values of craftsmanship and longevity.
Timber framing is deeply tied to the history of Niagara, and all of Ontario in a broader sense. Many of the earliest barns, houses, and civic buildings in this region were built using heavy timber joinery, and countless examples still stand today as proof of the strength and artistry of this method. By incorporating it into the pavilion, we continue that lineage while creating opportunities for people to learn and participate in the craft themselves.
Each phase of the pavilion’s construction is engaging students, community members, and craftspeople in conversations about heritage, sustainability, and the role of traditional trades in shaping modern construction. In this way, the pavilion is not just a structure to be used, but a story being built together, layer by layer, cut by cut.
Did You Know?
Heavy timber joinery is primarily a colonial building method. Using timbers would have made these intensive builds; the basis for long-term settlement. Indigenous longhouses and other pre-contact structures used flexible wood frameworks that were tied together rather than using mortise and tenon joinery. Indigenous communities in Niagara generally constructed their buildings with flexibility and adaptability in mind, traditionally moving from place to place along with access to local resources and wholly conscious of animal migration patterns.
Involving the Community
Dawson demonstrating techniques to Willowbank students
One-week Course
Community projects like this require planning, patience, and the support of passionate people eager to share their knowledge. Thankfully, we didn’t have to look far to find people with those qualities: the dedicated staff and faculty at the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts. Willowbank is a school in Queenston, Ontario working to train the next generation of heritage conservation professionals. Early in the planning process, we reached out to Willowbank to explore ways to involve students in the pavilion’s construction.
Each year, Willowbank’s second-year students take part in a week-long timber framing course, learning a trade embedded in the fabric of many historic structures. They often partner with outside organizations to complete these projects, and we came up with an idea that we thought could benefit both our organizations. Ultimately, we decided that the class would complete the scissor truss.
A scissor truss, also known as a cathedral truss, is a roof truss where the angled bottom chords cross and meet the angled top chords at an intermediate point, creating a "scissor-like" appearance and a vaulted or raised interior ceiling instead of a flat one. We chose the scissor truss because it’s strong and creates an open, vaulted ceiling. This design gives the space a welcoming, communal atmosphere, perfect for gathering.
To do this, we collaborated with Dawson Willsey. Dawson is Willowbank’s timber framing instructor, and is the owner of Pondering Pine Design. We also were fortunate to have structural engineer Mark Shoalts on board to help us with the design process. Thank you to both Dawson and Mark for your vital contributions to this exciting project!
With a full week, Willowbank students were able to take the process from start to finish: laying out the joinery, cutting it out, and finally, assembling the truss. For the one-day workshop, it wasn’t feasible to cover the entire process, but we knew we still wanted participants to contribute hands-on to the pavilion. It was important to us that participants left with a better understanding of/appreciation for the craft of timber framing, but also that they could come back one day and say “Hey, I helped build that!”
One-day Workshop:
In our public workshop on Saturday, we began the day with a presentation and discussion on the history and evolution of timber framing, exploring questions and topics like: Are we seeing a resurgence of the craft? Where does timber framing fit in the modern construction world today, and what can it offer to contemporary construction practices? This opened up conversations on craftsmanship, sustainability, and the enduring value of traditional skills.
From there, participants learned how to read blueprints for a simple post-and-beam construction before heading outside to practice laying and cutting out mortise and tenon joints. On test pieces of wood, they laid out and cut joinery under the guidance of Dawson. He demonstrated how to use both hand and power tools, giving participants the chance to try each and see the difference for themselves.
After lunch, our Project Manager gave a presentation on the pavilion we are working to build at the site and walked everyone through the design. This was an important step, providing context and helping participants see not only what they were about to contribute to, but also that they, alongside Willowbank students, would be the very first to put their hands on this new structure.
Before the workshop, Dawson had completed the joinery for this second scissor truss that the group would be assembling. On Saturday afternoon we then gathered outside to reveal the pieces, as well as the first truss built earlier in the week by Willowbank students. Together, the workshop participants assembled the second truss for the pavilion. To mark the occasion, everyone signed the final peg, which Dawson then hammered into place.
To further share the experience with the Niagara community, we hosted an Open House on Friday, September 26th, for those who wanted to see the timber framing in action. We also documented the process on video, and will be releasing a how-to video towards the end of the month that explains the making of a timber frame scissor truss, allowing even more people to engage with this exciting project and access education about this traditional craft. We hope that it can help people who are researching timber framing at home, and provide helpful tips and tricks from Dawson as the expert.
Check out the difference between the traditional hand mortiser, and the modern chain mortiser. Which one would you rather use?
Community Connection: Our Value
We lovingly refer to The Brown Homestead as Niagara’s Homestead, and we want the community, near and far, to feel this is a place they can connect with and take pride in. Inviting people to contribute to the very spaces that make up the site nurtures this sense of belonging and strengthens the connection between people and heritage.
One of our main focuses at The Brown Homestead is heritage education: sharing knowledge of heritage conservation and traditional crafts, and showing the relevance and benefits they continue to offer today. Our work is not only about reflecting on what The Brown Homestead once was or how historic sites were once built; it is also about continuing to add to the story and life of a place. By connecting past with present through active use of space, we ensure that our heritage sites remain dynamic and meaningful.
The same applies to the skills once used to build the John Brown House. While it is important to have craftspeople who understand heritage trades like timber framing to help maintain historic spaces, these skills can also be used to enhance and enrich the built environment of our communities today. Workshops like these give people the chance to explore trades that are often overlooked and to ask questions like: How can we engage with these skills today? What can they contribute to heritage sites and the wider community? How do we keep these skills alive?
Workshop participants assembling the second truss.
Community involvement ensures that heritage is an active experience rather than a passive one. When participants signed the final peg of the scissor truss before it was hammered into place, it became a moment that tied people to the structure in a lasting way. Heritage sites like The Brown Homestead thrive when people feel they are an integral part of their evolution. By bringing community members and students into the process, we are helping people see that heritage is not static. It is something that continues to grow, change, and adapt when people engage with it directly. These experiences create pride and form memories, allowing traditional skills to live on in a meaningful way.
Thank you INTBAU for making this workshop possible!
We were grateful to be one of 5 Recipients of the INTBAU Grassroots Grant programme, which made it possible for us to run this workshop. INTBAU is the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism. Their mission is to support and expand the global community who design, make, maintain, study and enjoy traditional buildings and places.
You can check out the work they do and the projects they support, by visiting their website.