The Boat Building Shop, which houses my workshop
and a display room of furniture
 |
I can remember almost 25 years ago, walking into
the old vine-covered shop where my grandfather had built and
stored boats before 1952. I remember my uncle also worked in
the cluttered shop that was filled with old machines and hand
tools.
Mix all of these memories with a love of building
fine period museum reproductions, and it has become a life's
work of learning and hard won satisfaction. I am very fortunate.
Having a business degree is not necessarily consistent
with furniture and clock making, but when you walk into an early
1900s boat building shop your grandfather owned, it's hard to
keep your heart and hands off the tools of his trade.
Interior of My Workshop
 |
Among my credits over the past twenty-five years
are
- I have twice been named to Early American
Life Magazine's 200 Best Craftsmen in America.
- I was recently featured on the NECN (the New
England Cable Network) "New England Dream House" program,
where I demonstrated the building of a grandfather clock.
- I have been the subject of numerous newspaper
and magazine articles from the Boston and New England areas.
- I was chosen to build reproduction period furniture
for the Massachusetts State House Senate Reception Halls.
- My furniture graces some of the most beautiful
homes across America.
JOHN R. SULLIVAN
From a historical reserach survey provided by McGinley
Hart and Associates, Architects and Preservation Planners:
"Starling Boat Co. (now Starling Furniture)
is a rare survivor of boat building tradition which has continued
at this site since at least the eighteenth century. The interior
has a remarkably intact 1920's office and the 1880's portion
retains its decorative verge board and framing. It is certainly
worthy of preservation and/or recordation by the Historic American
Buildings Survey (HABS) or the Historical American Engineering
Record (HAER) as a rare remnant of the vanishing wooden boat-building
industry."
|
|
