Each month we delight in researching and writing “A Closer Look” as it provides the opportunity to reengage in what Freedom’s Way does best—sharing stories about the people and places of the region that make it special. To celebrate National Preservation Month, in which the importance of historic places and the role they play in preserving community heritage is acknowledged, we “take a closer look” at an individual whose commitment to historic preservation has had an indelible impact on the region—Robert Adam.

An experienced woodworker and cabinet maker, Adam has specialized in preservation and trades training since the early Seventies. After teaching historic restoration at Nashoba Valley Technical High School in Westford, MA, he arrived at the North Bennet Street School (NBSS) in Boston’s North End to teach carpentry in 1982.

Four years later, Adam established the school’s Preservation Carpentry Program, a nationally recognized model in preservation skills training. Combining rigorous classroom instruction with field experience at historic properties, the full-time program has educated a generation of craftspeople, while forging strong relationships within the non-profit community.

Field projects take place at museums and historical societies throughout New England including such sites as Canterbury Shaker Village and Strawbery Banke in New Hampshire and Old Sturbridge Village and the Shirley-Eustis House in Massachusetts. To commemorate the preservation carpentry program’s 40th anniversary in 2026, NBSS collaborated with Historic Boston to create a full-scale reproduction of the entryway and two-story surround from John Hancock’s former home on Beacon Street. The home’s demolition in the late 1860s ignited such outrage that it inspired the creation of the historic preservation movement, making the project a fitting match for a program designed to preserve such sites.

Since its inception, the Preservation Carpentry Program has graduated more than 200 students whose training encompasses not only woodworking and hands-on experience but also includes complementary skills beyond carpentry, including in painting, plastering, masonry and metalworking.

Close to home, Adam has been a force for historic preservation within the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area, sharing his expertise through technical trainings and supporting local initiatives. As a founding director of the First Parish Meeting House Preservation Society of Shirley, Inc., established in 1995, Adam has been instrumental in preserving the iconic building as a community resource. He has continued to serve on its board, currently as President and Member Emeritus. Adam has supported Freedom’s Way as a board member.

Adam retired from the NBSS in 2008 after more than twenty-five years of teaching. Subsequently, he continued to consult on preservation issues and projects and for ten years worked on the restoration of the Ralph Houghton Garrison House in Harvard, MA. Now fully retired, Adam continues to serve as an advisor to historic preservation organizations and be involved with The Shirley Meeting House.

Adam’s work has been widely recognized both here and abroad. He has been a scholar with Great Britain’s Attingham Trust and a Fellow with Historic Scotland through the Quinque Foundation. As a “tireless advocate for thorough skills training in traditional building trades,” he was awarded the Askins Achievement Award by the Preservation Trades Network in 2009.

In 2022 Adam received Historic New England’s first annual Preservation Leadership Award honoring “an individual or institution whose indelible contribution to the preservation movement has had a transformational impact on the New England region,” noting that “his civic, educational, or professional leadership will exemplify the ways in which thoughtful preservation practice contributes to more livable, sustainable, and inclusive neighborhoods.”

Image courtesy of Historic New England