Stone Wall Building Volunteer Day at the Westport Town Farm.

By Jon Alden

Everythingwestport.com

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Over 20 men and women were introduced to the art and science of restoring dry stone walls, courtesy of local stone wall builder Chris Tracey of Dartmouth’s Avant Garden. Chris was everywhere, giving instruction with hands-on tutorials, overseeing, educating, and giving much of himself to preserve the old rock relics we call stone walls. Chris’ son, Phil, lent his father a hand in the overall construction. The Trustees of Reservations were fortunate to have Chris and these many volunteers to help preserve this magnificent reminder of New England’s agricultural past. Many hands (and muscles!) make light work! Left: Chris (center) giving a lesson to volunteers Michael Medeiros (left) and Terry Vazquez (right). Visit Avant Gardens web site.

Building dry stone walls is a craft of patience, skill, and above all, experience. And no matter what someone may tell you, you have to have the right rocks! Early farmers picked rocks from their fields and simple put them into rubble walls at the field’s boundaries. Some of these rubble walls were later put into more formal architectural structures by newer landowners. Today’s craft of wall building (hardscaping) is a little more complicated, because style is becoming more important than function where landscaping is involved.

What made the job a little more difficult at the Town Farm was the only available inventory of rock came from the existing wall, thereby greatly reducing rock size and shape selection. “You only take the stone you need” may be a wall builder’s saying, but in this case “you only take the rock you have!”

The original wall was first torn down to its foundation. “The wall’s foundation should be two to three feet deep,” Mr. Tracey explained. “And free of all organic material. The wetter the soil, the more important the foundation.” Mr. Tracey explained that no matter what the stone used, dry stone walls follow the same philosophy of construction. In New England, frost lines are a concern to the wall’s long-term stability. The best built walls always have very large stones as stabilizing points throughout the structure. The earth’s vibrations and minute trembles can literally shake these walls down over a long period of time.

Mr. Tracey demonstrated the practice of using smaller stones to fill the gaps, “always using the biggest stone that will fit in the space,” he said. As we have seen all through Westport, there are many styles of dry stone walls. But the “one over two” method and “three-point contact” are used in most dry stone wall construction. The typical white granite fieldstones have the rough texture necessary to reduce slippage, and the glaciers were kind enough to leave rocks of all sizes and shapes to assist today’s wall builders! Mr. Tracey said it was easier to build a stone wall out of rounds and flats than all flat rocks. Unless you’re using chipped shale! “Keep the dirt off the rocks,” said Mr. Tracey. “It acts like grease. When dirt gets in, stones start to fall.”

Pry bars and a Bobcat assisted the volunteers in moving and leveraging the larger rocks into position. It took 20 volunteers and two skilled wall builders two hours to rebuild 25 feet of wall. Imagine our farmers 200 years ago building miles of walls with just horse and hand power! Andrew Orr just rock-picked his field on Adamsville Road the first week in April, and you should see the mountain of stones in his northwest corner! This field has been farmed for over a hundred years, and it still produces stones by the cartload.

Building a wall requires endurance, patience and experience. It sometimes appears that wall builders are just standing around a project. What they really are doing is pacing themselves, and contemplating several steps ahead, like chess players, visualizing a concept and planning a strategy.

How to build a dry stone wall.

The Trustees of Reservations along with Westport Land Conservation Trust is now managing the Westport Town Farm under the direction of Mike Labossiere, Superintendent of eight properties, including this one, under the umbrella of the Buzzards Bay Cape Cod Management Unit. Mike was at the site doing a yeoman’s job of working and learning.

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This 40 acre property, formerly the Westport Poor Farm, was established in 2007 under the management of the Trustees of Reservations. Now known as the Westport Town Farm, livestock graze on its open fields, and the property boasts an expansive view of the Westport River. An antique farmhouse, dairy barn, corn crib, and stone walls dating back to Colonial times complete the picture of this bucolic working farm that served as a “poor farm” and infirmary for more than 100 years. With its 10-acre working hayfield, extensive salt marsh, and broad tidal river, Westport Town Farm is not only scenic, but of historic and ecological value - a unique combination. The farms’ dual legacy of nurturing those in need and raising vegetables and livestock weave together at this remarkable coastal landscape, where you’ll see ospreys, gulls, and the occasional bald eagle soar overhead (copy courtesy of The Trustees of Reservations web site). Read story of the Town Farm grand opening celebration in July 25, 2007.

Once a farmer’s nuisance, mostly igneous fieldstones left over from the last ice age’s receding glaciers are now being used to produce some of the finest dry stone walls in New England. However, many of the early farmers’ border walls were merely piles of rubble. Over time, these rubble walls were rebuilt into the architectural structures we know today, adding “hardscaping” to the traditional landscaping that decorates our homes and businesses. The purpose of this volunteer day was to recruit individuals to learn and then implement stone wall building techniques to help maintain the property’s extensive network of fieldstone walls.

During the reworking and excavation of the stone wall’s foundation bordering the Drift Road, west-side parking lot, the workers found several large stones, but more importantly a significant amount off old, broken iron flanges, hitches and farm implements that the early residents discarded along the base of the stone wall, keeping in tradition with the old Yankee practice of never really throwing anything away!

View everythingwestport.com’s photo essay, Stone Walls of Westport.

Read Dan King’s (of the Dartmouth Chronicle) story about the day’s activities.

Chris Tracey of Avant Gardens and son Phil (aqua-blue cap) are in the thick of things with many eager volunteers.

Job completed. This 25 foot section was rebuilt in about two hours.

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