Greg and Leah Gordon live in the perfect part of the country for their niche market.

In a workshop at their home in Hope, the husband and wife team restore windows made from the mid-1700s to the turn of the century. New England happens to have a plethora of old homes that need their windows restored to their former glory.

Ten years ago, Greg began restoring windows and he has never looked back. His wife, Leah, came on board to paint and do the intricate detail work.

They have restored windows for libraries, farmhouses, meeting houses, the Spurwink Church in Cape Elizabeth and the old Rockland train station.

The windows the Gordons restore are valuable for a few reasons, one being that the wood they are made of is original virgin timber.

The timber in the 18th and 19th centuries came from vast forests where trees, because of limited light and competition from other trees, grew more slowly than trees today. That slow growth made the wood strong and dense. And you cannot find it anywhere today but in old structures.

The windows’ monetary and aesthetic value aren’t the only reason the Gordons do this work. They see it as helping to bring back a part of history.

“We think of windows as really the eyes of the house. It is a romantic thing to think about, what these people looked out at through these windows over the years,” Gordon said.


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