When Andy Brandt walks around the Brooks Estate, he notices the same things as most of us. The woods, the quiet, the sense of history. Last year on one of his regular bird walks around the property, he was excited to see an indigo bunting, a deep-blue songbird with rapid, cheerful song.
Over the years, Andy also noticed something wrong with a window in the second floor kitchen of the manor house. The trim at the top had rotted so fully it was essentially gone. Rot like that can spread and allow rain and snow to enter, compromising far more than the window itself.
Andy, a general contractor who owns Roycroft Restoration and specializes in historic preservation, contacted Carly Nesson, president of the Medford-Brooks Estate Land Trust, and volunteered to make the repair. The project was a perfect fit for his skills, knowledge, and interests, and small enough for him to get it done in a reasonable amount of time.
The work took about three days. “It’s basically dentistry,” Andy says. Like a cavity, you peel back the layers until you get to something solid. He removed the outer trim and tore out the entire casing. Much of the top half of the window frame behind the casing had to be removed, too. Then he rebuilt it all.
He used 19th century planes to recreate the 3 layers of trim, and a table saw to rebuild the frame. He secured it all with modern nails and caulks far more durable than the original. While the original woodwork was made of old-growth eastern white pine, he used mahogany. It lasts longer than today’s white pine. The window glass itself didn’t change (but Andy has a stock of 19th century glass if anyone needs it).
Andy appreciates the Brooks Estate as a “monument to a particular social moment” and is happy to have played a role in preserving it.
His advice to others who want to help? Raise your hand. Not everyone can restore a 150-year-old window, but picking up trash or removing invasive species doesn’t require special skills. As Andy put it, “It takes a lot of people and effort to maintain the estate, and anyone can pull weeds.”
