School History

Since 1992, woodworkers and aspiring woodworkers have been coming to One Cottage Street in Easthampton, Massachusetts to learn the craft of woodworking.

Originally known as the One Cottage Street School of Fine Woodworking, the school began as a collaboration between the Division of Continuing Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a group of professional woodworkers at One Cottage. The original mission was to offer adult beginning and intermediate classes in woodworking, but this expanded to include architectural woodworking career training in 1995. Faith Harrison and Steve Squire then purchased the school, changing the name to The New England School of Architectural Woodworking and adding more hobbyist classes.

Greg and Margaret Larson took over the school in summer of 2008 and continued to purchase equipment, adapt the career training program to meet changing industry standards, and grow the night and weekend program for beginning and intermediate woodworkers.

In 2012, Greg and Margaret decided to spin off the hobbyist classes under a new name, The Workbench. This gives them the flexibility to add other craft classes, expand the Open Shop program, and begin to attract visiting artisans from around the United States.