What We Do

Historic Eastfield Village is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization, and the campus for the Annual Series of Early American Trades and Historic Preservation Workshops, a nationally renowned program of lectures, symposia and hands-on classes. The Village itself is not a museum; there are no ropes or glassed-off exhibits. Founder Don Carpentier collected the more than twenty buildings and their contents to serve as a laboratory, allowing Workshop participants the opportunity to study, handle and utilize thousands of architectural elements, tools and typical artifacts of the late 18th-early 19th century.

Studying here is meant to be an immersion experience. Students and teachers live in the Village during their courses, experiencing first-hand the daily lives and work of the tradesmen of the pre-industrial age.

The experts and master craftsmen who comprise the faculty are leaders in their fields, and the Annual Series of Workshops maintains the highest educational standards. Students are a mixture of novices, whose interests may be their own old houses, and museum or industry professionals, who are looking to expand their specific skills. This combination offers a dynamic opportunity to share and learn.