Ailsa and Hank’s House: Building Thoreau’s Walden house at Pingree School
What? The Pingree community will research and construct a replica of the house Henry David Thoreau built at Walden Pond between March and December, 1845. The entire project and later, the space itself, is meant to bring wonderful, instructive fun to multiple Pingree constituencies. Most importantly, the house will honor the work, values, and love of learning Ailsa Steinert has shared with Pingree over forty-six years as an inspirational teacher, writer, colleague, and friend.
When? We will begin hewing logs on campus in April, 2012. Students in a spring-season after-school group will work daily on the house, kicking off what we expect will be a multi-year project. There’s an alumni hewers gathering scheduled for May 5, 2012, and many more such dates to be determined.
Who? We envision dozens of participants! Pingree students from various courses (including senior elective, Engaging With Thoreau) will join in, as will faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and friends. A local alumni group, spearheaded by Arthur Steinert ‘88 and Tim Purinton ‘88, is actively involved with fund-raising, materials acquisition, coordination of work schedules, and, most importantly, celebration of Ailsa!
Where? Though the precise location of the house remains uncertain, it’ll become part of our campus landscape at Pingree. The log-hewing, timber-cutting, and traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery will happen at a central location at school. Once we’ve determined the siting, we’ll dig the cellar hole, assemble the frame, sheathe the roof and walls, build the brick chimney, and finish out the building just as Thoreau did.
How? As much as possible and functional, we’ll use the same tools, materials, and construction techniques Thoreau likely employed when building his house. This means hand tools exclusively, an axe-hewn timber frame, and bought, salvaged, and traded construction materials. The tools we’ll use most are those one would’ve found in a mid-19th-century toolbox: felling axe and broadaxe; timber chisels, slicks, and mallets; buck-, rip-, and crosscut saws; squares, plumb-bobs, augers, and chalklines.
Why? What better way to celebrate Ailsa than to build, like her transcendentalist hero, a small shelter for quiet reflection, immersion in nature, spiritual awakening and preparation for the civic and political engagement necessary to change society for the better? How better might we symbolize Ailsa’s five decades of devotion to Pingree than by inviting English students to think about Thoreau, History students to consider his moral commitment to human freedom, Math students to ponder the geometry of rafters and sills, Engineering students to compare Thoreau’s roof to the modern snow-load tables and framing requirements, Sculpture students to shape hinges, hardware, and fireplace tools at the smithy forge? Who better to set hands to work and hearts to Ailsa than the generations of students who studied poetry at her knee and the generations to come who’ll read Walden in Hank and Ailsa’s house?!
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