About the mill

A mill in an old warehouse

Blue Barn Heritage Timber Co. started in 2014 in a rented corner of Warehouse D on North Queen Street, with one band saw, a mortiser older than its operator, and a pile of beams from a barn in Strasburg Township. Today we use the whole warehouse. The north end is the framing floor, where every bent is laid out and test-fitted. The south end is the salvage yard, racked high with sorted barn siding and hewn timbers.

Caleb Bridger, Master Timber Framer

Caleb grew up taking down barns with his uncle in the Conestoga Valley. He learned to read old frames before he learned to cut new ones: which joints had held, which had failed, and why. He spent his twenties cutting frames for builders across Pennsylvania and New England, then came home to Lancaster to start the mill.

He still lays out most of the frames himself. If you write to caleb@bluebarnhousestore.org with a question about a joint, Caleb answers it.

How we work

• Every joint by hand. We use power tools to rough out mortises and tenons and hand tools to fit them. Every peg hole is bored by hand so the drawbore offset suits the piece.
• Every frame raised in the shop. Before a kit ships, its bents are assembled on our floor, checked for square, numbered, and taken apart.
• Every salvage piece recorded. We note which barn and which part of the barn every reclaimed board came from, and that note ships with it.
• Engineering where it counts. We work with a licensed engineer on anything that needs a permit. We cut the frame; the engineer stamps it.

Find us

Blue Barn Heritage Timber & Salvage
Blue Barn Heritage Timber Co.
312 N Queen St, Warehouse D
Lancaster, PA 17603

Quotes, orders and yard visits: mill@bluebarnhousestore.org
Frame design questions: caleb@bluebarnhousestore.org

The yard is open by appointment on weekdays. Come see a bent on the floor, or start with the timber catalog and span calculator.