Olde Bostonian

Forty decorative brackets, reproduced from a single sample for a 100-year-old three-family porch — that job, described this summer by a Dorchester customer who called the result accurate in every way, is the shape of what Olde Bostonian does. The shop sits on Von Hillern Street in Boston and says it has been doing historical restoration since 1980, more than four decades of stripping, rebuilding and reproducing the woodwork that came with old New England houses. Windows are the through-line. A homeowner writing in December 2025 described sash restored in a 130-year-old house, with added weatherstripping that made the winter noticeably warmer; a 2023 review covered window restoration in a 280-year-old home, including the crew coming back afterwards to sort out broken panes from a butler's pantry. Another customer in November 2025 had a worn wooden front door repaired, the mortise lock filled and the whole thing refinished so the repair disappeared into the grain. One name keeps surfacing: Anthony. Customers in 2023, 2025 and this year all single him out — responsive, willing to adjust or redo anything that wasn't right. In a May 2026 r/massachusetts thread from an owner facing 35 lead-positive windows, two commenters pointed him out by name for restoring the originals rather than replacing them, though one added they weren't sure how far the shop goes on sills and trim. Written accounts run thinner than the tenure suggests: 4.6 stars across 24 Google ratings, of which seven carry any text, and its Houzz page — which files the business under carpentry and custom woodworking — has no reviews at all. The one mild caveat comes from a 2022 visitor who found the shop smaller than expected, its architectural-antiques stock centered on reclaimed doors and fireplaces. This is a restoration shop, not a replacement contractor. If the problem is original windows painted shut, a door worn past patching, or trim you want reproduced rather than swapped, that is the work customers describe here. Ask up front how much of the surrounding sills and trim they'll take on, since the recommendation itself came with that question attached.