Peter Miller
Craftsmanship is Alive and Well: Celebrating the Building Arts
A few years ago, the Texas Historical Association asked me to give a speech at their annual meeting in Austin. Their audience is a combination of preservation professionals and advocates, some architects and contractors and stewards of historic buildings around the state.
"What would you like me to talk about?" I asked. “Talk about the ‘death of craftsmanship,’" they said. Apparently, these historic preservationists were beleaguered by being told by developers, architects, and general contractors, “They don’t build things like that anymore. Tear it down and we’ll build you something new.” No wonder the Historical Association thought to name my speech "The Death of Craftsmanship!”
They had heard too many times that the skilled, traditional trades people and craftspeople who do historic restoration and renovation, or period-inspired new work, including additions to historic buildings and adaptive use, were extinct.
I agreed to travel to Texas to give this talk under one condition, “Let me change the title of this lecture to: 'Craftsmanship is Alive and Well if You Know Where to Find it.'” They agreed.
Using our own TRADITIONAL BUILDING and PERIOD HOMES resource lists, published projects, buying guides, and web links to craftspeople, I prepared my speech. In fact, I identified for the Historical Association several of the craftspeople and special trades people who read this blog and our magazines.
I showed slides of project photos and named the names of those who worked on them: decorative painters, guilders, plaster specialists, preservation carpenters and period-millwork craftspeople, stone masons and stone carvers, ornamental metal workers, stained-glass artisans, decorative tile setters, window restorationists and replication experts, historic hardware suppliers and more. Full disclosure, it seemed like the attendees at this event were not reading our magazines or they would have already known what I was talking about.
Except for TRADITIONAL BUILDING and PERIOD HOME’s recognition and celebration of the above-mentioned building arts, most craftspeople labor in relative anonymity, relying on their work to speak for itself and word of mouth to bring them the next job.
We aim to change this by shining an even brighter light on the building arts and craftspeople who work in our traditional building space. We have made a new year’s resolution to write even more stories about the traditional trades and building arts, starting with a special “Craftsmanship and the Building Arts” issue of TRADITIONAL BUILDING, March 2025.
Nancy Berry, editor of TRADITIONAL BUILDING says, “The March/April issue celebrates artisans and tradespeople who exemplify craftsmanship in historic preservation, restoration, and new classical design. From decorative painters and plasterers to carpentry and metalwork to stone and tile. We hope you’ll be part of this issue honoring the best in the traditional building arts.”
The issue will also be a resource for finding training programs, guilds and schools for emerging craftspeople in the building arts.
If you are one of these craftspeople, we’d like to hear from you. If you know of or work with building artisans and want to recommend, let us know here for future stories. Email Nancy Berry at berry42067@gmail.com.
Peter H. Miller, Hon. AIA, is the publisher and President of TRADITIONAL BUILDING, PERIOD HOMES and the Traditional Building Conference Series, and podcast host for Building Tradition, Active Interest Media's business to business media platform. AIM also publishes OLD HOUSE JOURNAL; NEW OLD HOUSE; FINE HOMEBUILDING; ARTS and CRAFTS HOMES; TIMBER HOME LIVING; ARTISAN HOMES; FINE GARDENING and HORTICULTURE. The Home Group integrated media portfolio serves over 50 million architects, builders, craftspeople, interior designers, building owners, homeowners and home buyers.
Pete lives in a classic Sears house, a Craftsman-style Four Square built in 1924, which he has lovingly restored over a period of 30 years. Resting on a bluff near the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., just four miles from the White House, Pete’s home is part of the Palisades neighborhood, which used to be a summer retreat for the District’s over-heated denizens.
Before joining Active Interest Media (AIM), Pete co-founded Restore Media in 2000 which was sold to AIM in 2012. Before this, Pete spent 17 years at trade publishing giant Hanley Wood, where he helped launch the Remodeling Show, the first trade conference and exhibition aimed at the business needs and interests of professional remodeling contractors. He was also publisher of Hanley Wood’s Remodeling, Custom Home, and Kitchen and Bath Showroom magazines and was the creator of Remodeling’s Big 50 Conference (now called the Leadership Conference).
Pete participates actively with the American Institute of Architects’ Historic Resources Committee and also serves as President of the Washington Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. He is a long-time member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and an enthusiastic advocate for urbanism, the revitalization of historic neighborhoods and the benefits of sustainability, including the adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
