The Carpenter's House

 

There’s a little log cabin a few miles from our home, and we’ve been wanting to check it out for a long time. It sits on a hill near our local Ace Hardware, at the corner of 13 and 20 south of Middlebury.  Turns out there are now two little log cabins—but let’s start with the first and original one.

The beautiful stone sign out front says The Carpenter’s House.  The landscaping surrounding both buildings is a stunning array of flowers and water features and stone stairs and paths—it’s worth a stop just for that! 

The Carpenter’s House is a prayer chapel built by the Martins, the family who owns the nearby Ace Hardware.  It is a simple but beautiful room that is open to the public every day.  It contains some rough-hewn benches and is set up like a church.  I saw that someone had recently used it for their wedding vow renewal ceremony—how lovely!  Up front on the altar, underneath the striking stained glass window, is a wooden box containing some paper tags.  Visitors are invited to write their prayer request on a tag and attach it to the special wall on the left.  Many people had done so.

Nearby is the newer building, The Master’s Gallery.  Unlike the prayer chapel, this building is not open every day—but I was able to get a pretty decent picture of the interior looking through a front window.

I think I’ll be back here the next time I need a quiet place to sit and think and pray.  And considering the condition of my dear young friend “Katie,” whose family is now counting down the weeks or days until her likely passing, that could be sooner than I’d like.

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For the address and phone number of the Carpenter's House, look here.

For a wonderful 4 ½ minute video about the Martins and their faith and their business
and how they connect the two, look here.