George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation

Popular PBS woodworking show plans Fredericksburg-related episode to air early next year

By LAURA MOYER
Published in The Free Lance-Star: 5/11/2005

Bill Jewell of Historic Woods of America
Bill Jewell, who owns Historical Woods of
America, shows wood salvaged from the
Rappahannock crib dam,which will be used
to reproduce a table from Kenmore. A Fred-centric episode of "The New Yankee Workshop" television show will focus on two of the city's defining institutions, the Rappahannock River and the Kenmore mansion.

The show's executive producer, Russell Morash, was in town yesterday to scout locations for a planned June taping of the show, in which renowned craftsman Norm Abram shows home woodworkers how to make their own versions of notable historic furnishings.

Sometime in the show's 18th season, which begins in January 2006, "New Yankee" devotees will watch Abram make a table patterned after a circa-1750 Virginia-made corner table in Kenmore's collection.

Abram will use wood salvaged from the 1854 crib dam on the Rappahannock. The crib dam was removed along with the newer, concrete Embrey Dam, which was breached in February 2004.

Wood from the crib dam--massive pine and oak timbers that had been underwater for 150 years--was originally destined for disposal along with other rubble from the former Rappahannock dams.

But the river advocacy group Friends of the Rappahannock asked the city to donate the crib-dam wood to their nonprofit organization, figuring they could somehow use it to raise funds.

FOR Chairman Steve Robinson, a longtime woodworker and "New Yankee" watcher, suggested trying to interest the show in a Fredericksburg-based crib-dam wood project.

Late last year, FOR Executive Director John Tippett sent a letter to the show. He included samples of sawn white oak, red oak and yellow pine produced from crib-dam wood by William Jewell, owner of the local business Historical Woods of America Inc.

In January, the word came back that Morash Associates and co-producer WGBH Boston were interested in the Fredericksburg project for the 2006 season.

Russell Morash inspects the table at Kenmore
Morash photographs the table at Kenmore
that craftsman Norm Abram will reproduce
using salvaged wood on an episode of
'The New Yankee Workshop.'
At rear, Steve Robinson of Friends of the
Rappahannock chats with local
businessman Bill Jewell (left). The next step was to decide what piece of furniture Abram would build. Morash looked at photographs of several Fredericksburg-related furniture pieces before settling on the corner table from Kenmore.

That piece appealed because of its age, elegance, size, functionality and simplicity.

The table in the Kenmore collection is walnut, with pine as a secondary wood. The "New Yankee" table will be made mostly or entirely of oak, Morash said.

Yesterday, Morash and WGBH publicist Kathryn Hathaway visited the crib-dam woodpile, where Jewell explained how the rough, massive timbers would be sawn into furniture-grade lumber.

Wood from the crib dam is appealing for several reasons, Jewell said. When the dam was built in 1854, old-growth forests were still being logged. Ring counts Jewell has done on crib-dam wood indicate that some of the trees used would have started growing in the 1650s.

The wood's long submersion in water and silt is another factor, affecting its color and chemical composition, Jewell said.

He planned to start this week sawing specifically for the "New Yankee" project, so the wood can be kiln-dried by June.

Russell Morash tours Kenmore with Curator, David Voelkel
TV producer Russell Morash (right) talks
with Kenmore curator David Voelkel
yesterday inside the historic home about
a filming location for a new episode of
'The New Yankee Workshop,' a show on
woodworking, during Morash's
visit to the area.After they visited the woodpile, Morash and Hathaway stopped by Kenmore to see the table and tour the home. Though the main floor of the mansion is being restored, a bedchamber with Kenmore's famed ornamental plaster ceiling is suitable for taping a part of the show, Morash said.

He and Hathaway finished their visit with lunch at Ferry Farm, George Washington's boyhood home, across the river in Stafford County.

Already, Morash said, he's envisioning how the show will tell the Fredericksburg "side story." He was toying with the idea of showing Abram arriving by boat, then hitting several other city sites in one long day of production. The actual table-making, of course, will take place in the Yankee workshop in New England.

Not everything they shoot locally will appear in the final show.

"Our audience are woodworkers, not historians," Morash said. "You've got to feed them the story gently, or they'll head over to the ballgame."

To reach LAURA MOYER: 540/374-5417 lmoyer@freelancestar.com