GUNSTOCK POSTS

A post deeper at the top to provide more wood for intersecting joinery.—Hudson Mohawk Vernacular Architecture

Posts, framed into the ground sills, were usually flared or gunstock at
the top to take framing of girts and plates.—Providence Preservation Society

The gunstock post gets this name because it resembles the shape of an old rifle—if you were to take the rifle and stand it on its barrel end, the top, or stock end, flares out. With roots in Medeival English constrution and thus found in some earlier colonial homes, these posts were a popular device in timber frame architecture, providing extra space and strength to support the incorporation of beams and other farming elements.

This video from This Old House walks you through the gunstock post and also shows how a preservation carpenter repais them.

Our tours of colonial homes, like our April 2026 tour in Andover and North Andover, Massachusetts, have included homes with flared and gunstock posts! Join us on other colonial homes tours this spring for the chance to see more!