In 2019, Michael Burrey watched television in horror as the steeple of the historic Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral collapsed during a devastating fire. He realized right away that the damage to this 1,000-year-old medieval masterpiece and World Heritage Site would require the efforts of thousands of craftsmen schooled in all-but-forgotten construction skills to restore it.
What the Plymouth resident didn’t know then was he would be one of the talented tradesmen tasked with resurrecting the spire. Last year, the preservation carpentry instructor at the North Bennet Street School in Boston worked for three months in France to build a new one, which towers 315 feet above the ground at the Catholic cathedral.
“I was bouncing off the ceiling,” Burrey said. “I was working with these incredibly talented carpenters in France. The amount of work on the spire was stunning.”
Burrey was one of only nine Americans to participate in the stunning multi-million-dollar restoration of Notre-Dame, which reopened to the public Dec. 7. All told, some 2,000 members of the Compagnons du Devoir, an association of French tradesmen trained in woodworking, masonry and other crafts necessary to restore ancient buildings, worked on the restoration.
From May to July 2023, Burrey matched his carpentry skills against some of the best in the world while working with 11 other craftsmen on wooden railings, dormers, trefoils and various decorative elements. Their job was to transform French oak into the design features needed for the new steeple.
“We were taking these blocks of wood, sending them through the shapers to get them to the right shape and then assembling them,” he said. “I was carving in the elements that couldn’t be done by machine and joining up the blocks where they didn’t quite meet up. There was a lot of chisel work, planing, scraping – I used files a lot.”
Burrey and his team worked in an old automobile plant in Thouars, located about 215 miles southwest of Paris. They pieced together the framework of the massive structure in separate sections, which was then covered in lead to match the original design of the steeple. When assembled and erected on top of the cathedral, it weighed more than 250 tons.
Helping to restore the Notre-Dame spire was a dream come true for Burrey, who wanted to be a historic builder since his youth. He first became interested in woodworking when he picked up a copy of the seminal book “American Barns and Covered Bridges” by Eric Sloane, then learned as much as he could about the tools and techniques used in building centuries ago.
“My reward for getting my chores done as a kid was getting a broadaxe so I could go out and fell trees,” he said.
After graduating from college with a degree in Early American Life, Burrey moved to Plymouth to work at what was then Plimoth Plantation, now Plimoth Pawtuxet Museums. He learned all about 17th-century construction and began building houses, gates, and fences the way they did 400 years ago.
In 1999, Burrey left the museum to start his own preservation company, MLB Restorations, specializing doing work on some of New England’s many colonial homes. In 2014, he joined the staff at North Bennet Street School to help train the next generation of woodworkers using the old methods.
The following year, Burrey’s skills got him invited to England, where he helped with restoration of the Tower of London. He was involved in the reconstruction of a wooden stairway at the ancient royal palace and fortress.
Several years ago, Burrey helped construct a replica of the Turtle, the world’s first submersible vessel. Built by patriots in 1775, it was used in three unsuccessful attempts to blow up British ships in New York Harbor during the American Revolution. The model is on display at the Connecticut River Museum.
“It was called the Turtle because it looked like two turtle shells put together,” he said. “We took a big spruce, split it in half, hollowed out the inside, rounded the outside and we fashioned this fairly true representation of that submarine.”
After the Notre-Dame fire, Burrey volunteered with Carpenters Without Borders to construct a new wooden truss for the roof of the cathedral, which was displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2021. The massive structure never made it to France because of customs issues, but it did bring more acclaim for Burrey, who was then asked to assist in building the church’s new spire, along with another woodworker.
“Our organization had been working with Carpenters Without Borders, which is based in France,” said Marie Brown, executive director of Handshouse Studio, a nonprofit in Norwell that assists with historic reconstruction efforts around the world. “We told them we wanted to stand in solidarity with them on Notre-Dame and they selected Michel Burrey and Jackson DuBois to join them. They are perfect ambassadors of everything Handhouse Studio represents.”
Because the steeple workshop was in a different location, Burrey didn’t get to see that much of Notre-Dame during his three-month stay in France. Weekdays, he was busy building the steeple, but on weekends, he was able to travel to Paris.
“We’d rent bikes and ride over to the cathedral so we could see how work was progressing,” he said.
Finally, in July, Burrey and the other spire workers were invited to see what was happening inside. They were stunned by the activity level, as well as by the spiderweb of scaffolding in the cathedral.
“It was huge,” he said. “They were repairing the vaulting and cleaning and painting the ceilings.”
Burrey walked away from the project with the spire plans (“I had to promise not to build Notre-Dame in Plymouth”) and a few castoff wooden decorative elements that were not cut correctly. He also left a souvenir for future generations to find: his signature on the Apostles’ Stairway at the cathedral.
“It was one of the first decorative elements we worked on when we got over there,” he said. “I wrote my name on a little triangle of wood. I also dated it and wrote ‘PLIMOTH’ on it.”
Burrey has wonderful memories of his time in France. He says it was thrilling to use his woodworking skills to help restore such an iconic architectural structure.
“It was an incredible experience,” he said. “Working with all of those master craftsmen was out of this world. The Compagnons du Devoir is an amazing organization. If I had to start all over again, I would begin my journey with them.”
Dave Kindy, a self-described history geek, is a longtime Plymouth resident who writes for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, National Geographic, Smithsonian and other publications. He can be reached at davidkindy1832@gmail.com.