Stanford Enterprises Inc. was established in 1959 by Henry Offerman.
By 1977 Stanford Enterprises Inc. had established a name as the finest custom restoration builders, restoring many beautiful houses in Rhinebeck and the surrounding area of Dutchess County New York.
In 1979 Terry Baldwin, after attending college studying architecture, went to work for Stanford Enterprises Inc. After working for a few months at Stanford Enterprises Inc., Terry, with his love for music and woodworking, took time off to go to school at GRD , Guitar Research and Design, under Charles Fox.
After returning from school with a fine guitar, Henry Offerman handed Terry a hand saw and a block plane and put him on the trim crew working under MasterCraftsman, John Post (Remember there was no chop saw or cordless screwdrivers back then, everything was done by hand).
Terry quickly established his own workshop and a name as a fine craftsman and artist, while working for Stanford Enterprises Inc. Terry pursued his guitar making career, only to be disappointed by the lack of monetary reward and challenges. With his reputation built by his employment with Stanford Enterprises Inc. and the fine guitars he built and restored, people started asking Terry to work on their houses.
Terry took on small projects that challenged him, such as restoring curved windows, turning balusters to restore old staircases and grinding profile cutters to reproduce 20th century moldings.
After 7 years of employment with Stanford Enterprises Inc. Terry's side work became overwhelming and he decided to go out on his own, establishing a DBA as Baldwin Woodworking. Terry's first job was for Stanford Enterprises Inc. making a replacement set of curved top carriage house doors.
Terry quickly established a reputation of being able to do just about anything and more challenging jobs came in. In 1986 Terry met Richard E. McCue, a young and growing contractor in Lakeville, CT. After a few small stair and trim jobs Rick offered him the challenge he was looking for, an elliptical stair with six flying volutes and an elliptical balcony in the middle of the second floor. After finishing the stair at the highest level of perfection Terry had proven there was nothing he could not do.
When the October storm of 1987 hit Terry found himself out of electricity and out of work. He heard of a boat shop on the Rondout in Kingston New York that was working with cutting edge technology and went to check it out. To his delight they still had power, a washer dryer and even a shower. This was perfect since Stanfordville was devastated and utilities were not expected to come on line for at least 2 weeks. While at the boat shop Terry learned about vacuum laminating, a process of clamping large surfaces with a consistent pressure of 1400 lbs per square foot. A process that makes Stanford Enterprises Inc. a leader in geometric woodworking today.
In 1992 Henry Offerman retired and offered the ownership to Terry Baldwin. Terry proudly accepted and later purchased Henry's home and moved into Stanford Enterprises Shop at 64 Ohland Road, where we still reside today.
Stanford Enterprises continues today working closely with Contractors, Designers and Architects to help create the finest houses in the region. Special thanks to: Henry P. Offerman, Jeff Spiers of The Old Lumberyard, Richard E. McCue, Marty Moore of Coastal Designers for the opportunity to create only the finest works.
