Preservation Trades Training Workshops
Learn. Restore. Preserve.
Victoria Mansion’s Preservation Trades training initiative was born in part through the organization’s direct experience with the severe shortage of preservation trades professionals in northern New England. Older and historic buildings have unique needs and require special understanding and care. Victoria Mansion relies on a talented team of woodworkers, masons, and painters to maintain and preserve our National Historic Landmark property, but we have long worried about the shrinking pool of qualified workers.
These two-week intensive training programs are aimed at practicing tradespeople interested in acquiring the specialized skills required to work sensitively on older and historic buildings.
According to Timothy Brosnihan, Victoria Mansion’s Executive Director, “Currently many of the state’s most experienced preservation experts are approaching retirement and will leave an enormous vacuum if their skills are not transferred to the next generation. At Victoria Mansion, we continually struggle with the shortage of skilled, hands-on preservation practitioners. We see these training seminars as an opportunity to chip away at this problem, creating positive spillover effects that will benefit the stewards of other historic buildings throughout the state of Maine.”
For further information about the shortage of trades professionals in historic preservation, refer to Understanding and Advancing the Preservation Trades published by the Northeast Regional Initiative for the Preservation Trades, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, February 2023.
