STURBRIDGE, MASS. — Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) raised the frame on a new cabinetmaking shop March 31, marking the first addition in more than 50 years to the village’s Common. The new building will be south of the meeting house.

OSV is employing both historic and modern building methods in the construction of the cabinetmaking shop, which is patterned after structures used by early 19th Century New England craftsmen.

The building will include a wood-burning stove, as did many freestanding shops of the period, and a small external woodshed, based on George Bradley’s shop in Sandy Hook.

Bradley Lane, which runs between Berkshire Road and Great Ring Road in Sandy Hook, was named for the Bradley family. So many Bradleys lived in that section of town during the 18th and 19th centuries that the area was referred to as “Bradleyville.”

A Newtown map of 1854 notes that G. Bradley owned a sawmill on what became Bradley Lane. Another G. Bradley is noted with a residence on what is now Jordan Hill Lane.

Sturbridge and the region were home to some of the foremost cabinetmakers of the early 19th Century, including Nathan Lumbard and Oliver Wight. These individual and others like them were integral parts of the story of rural communities.

“The story of cabinetmaking in rural New England deserves to be told,” said Brock Jobe, OSV trustee and professor emeritus of American Decorative Arts at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library. “And most importantly, the hundreds and thousands of visitors who come to Old Sturbridge Village every year deserve the opportunity to see, hear, and touch an activity that was central to life in America for centuries — the fine craft of woodworking.”

Costumed interpreters will construct the shop during the days the Village is open; campus operations staff will continue the work on days when OSV is closed.

Many elements of the cabinetmaking shop will be created by craftspeople and interpretive staff working in the village, including reproduction period tools, doors, shelves, and the box stove. The large timbers for the construction of the shop were also cut by the village sawmill.

OSV plans to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new cabinetmaking shop in the fall.

OSV President and CEO Jim Donahue said that he and others “are excited for the opportunity to share the process of the cabinetmaking shop construction with our visitors.

“We look forward to the completion of the new building and bringing back this historic trade to Old Sturbridge Village for many generations to come,” he added.