North Bennet Street School’s new campus at North and Richmond streets in the North End is a new beginning for the 132-year-old trade school.

Spacious workrooms, broad hallways, and a soaring atrium replaced the school’s cramped, labyrinthine old location a quarter-mile away.

Traditional crafts taught at the school have gained new relevance, especially since the global financial crisis left so many people jobless.

The school’s president says North Bennet Street is moving back to its founding mission: providing job skills and social services to the working poor.

Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez said many of the school’s students, who number about 160 and include military veterans, are attracted to its practical curriculums.

Julia Felix, a second-year student in violin making, used a violin knife to put a bevel on a scroll.

Keimody Crockett is one of 15 carpentry students of varied backgrounds who range from 19 into their 40s. Each student treats the others with respect, he said.

Crockett (left) watched a demonstration of work on a wall cabinet by Stewart Pugsley, John D’Anna, and Sam Holcomb.