Shoreside Pavilion

The rafters for this project came from a single hemlock tree that began growing on a slope overlooking the Ashtabula river around the year 1700. The tree came to me by way of a neighbor and friend named Howard. Howard is in his nineties, and is the 3rd generation owner of the land. The stand this tree grew in is the oldest remnant of forest I am familiar with in our area-- a climax stand of beech, hard maple, and hemlock. Howard recently provided for a conservation easement to most of the property, so the forest should continue aging without threat of cutting. I feel fortunate to have been subtly mentored by Howard since meeting him 20 years ago. And while I try not to get too sentimental about the wood I use, in this case it seems appropriate to acknowledge the unique age of the tree supplying the rafters. It was at least 300 years old when the wind broke its top off in the winter of 2008.

The photo is of the square-sectioned scantlings which I sawed from that tree and have had air-drying for several years. For this project we resawed these into arrow-straight rafters. The ruler brings perspective to the very slow rate of growth (at times more than 50 annual rings per inch) which this tree experienced over its lifetime within the old forest.