Peter Ladd

In the NH hills where he was born, Peter Ladd grew up playing in antique timber-frame barns and was fascinated by the puzzles and lost secrets of their massive construction.  Almost half a century ago, at the dawn of the current Timber Frame revival, he taught himself timber framing from scratch, even making his tools, to build the home he still lives in today.

After other wide-ranging adventures, travels, and occupations, he became a self-employed full-time professional timber framer. Today Peter continues to design and build new homes and barns, restore old ones, and preserve historic buildings. He pursues an ever-stronger emphasis on individual hand-craft, intuitive design, traditional tools, and classic aesthetics. Over several decades he has trained numbers of assistants, some of whom also have successfully taken up the trade. 

A member of the Timber Framer’s Guild since its inception, and often working with the NH Preservation Alliance, Peter remains a life-long student and advocate of the trade as historically practiced in early New England.

He considers every frame, old or new, as an opportunity to learn more and further expand his understanding and skills, which he deeply enjoys demonstrating and sharing.