Stan Hywet Hall Woodworking Observations

[Pete Taran]

Last night the family and I visited Stan Hywet Hall, a large estate built by FA Sieberling, co founder of Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Without going into detail about the history, it was built between 1915 and 1918 and is about 65,000 square feet in size. It is also on the national historic landmark list. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Hywet_Hall_and_Gardens

Despite being only 15 miles from where I live, I've never visited. They put on a nice Christmas Holiday display, but I found the interior woodworking to be very interesting. Some photos of some of the interesting motifs follow. The guide told me that all the woodwork was "American Oak, Mahogany, Walnut and Chestnut". I don't know what American Oak is, but it seems to be white oak to my eye. I didn't see any walnut or any of the other woods. Since this entire place was built before power tools, it seems likely that most of it was done by hand the way we like to work, planes, scratch stocks, carving tools, etc.

Some details of the raised panels which cover the entire first and second floor. All appear to be quartersawn white oak. Lots of linenfold panels on the first floor:

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Same view, zoomed out of image immediately above. Interesting that they used frame and panel construction and used the pegs as a design element. Also interesting that they would pick a wood like white oak for the carving medium. I would have though mahogany would have been a better choice to highlight the carving details. Still looks good though:

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A close up of a panel junction. Interesting how the top frame was coped, but the bottom was carved to match the abutting frame below:

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A view of the ceiling of the dining room:

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A view of painted carvings along the ceiling in the children's bedroom wing of the estate:

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A shot of a stairway detail, a panel between the rail and the floor:

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A particularly nice quartersawn step:

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Anyone traveling through North East Ohio might want to stop by for a look.

[Gary Focht]

I grew up probably only 3 miles from there. I certainly remember it as an impressive house. If I ever get back up that way, I'll have to make an effort to go see it again. Now that I'm a bit of a woodworker, I'll probably look at it completely differently than when I was a kid.

Thanks for for the memories.

[Warren Mickley]

The wood here is probably burr oak, which grows in Ohio and is lumped together with other species as white oak in the trade. It is a little more open grained than Quercus alba.

The bulk of the work is machine work in this era, with some hand work thrown in, decoration to make it look a bit medieval.

[Bill McDermott]

Good post Pete. Thanks. Cool stuff.

[Jim Koepke]

Impressive, did you take any images of the linen fold you mentioned?

jtk

[Paul F Franklin]

I live quite near as well, and have admired the woodwork and craft many times, but never thought to take photos to share, so thanks for that!

If you get the chance to the take the nooks and crannies tour (they do them a few times a year, and there's a reasonable charge for tickets) you get to see some of the areas of the mansion that aren't on the normal public tours. Seiberling had a lot of the latest "technology" (for the time) incorporated, and it was fun and informative for me to see a lot of it on the tour.

[Pete Taran]

I do want to take that tour. I have to say, even though the place was all done up for Christmas, it gave me a very creepy vibe walking around, like I was going to see a full body apparition at any moment. I didn't catch any pictures of the linenfold. It didn't occur to me to take pictures until we were about 1/3 of the way through the building. Next time!

[Tom Bender]

Great! I'll have to make it part f a road trip to see Falling Water in Pa.

[Tom Bender]

Great! I'll have to make it part f a road trip to see Falling Water in Pa.

There is a great building to see in Northern New York, Boldt Castle is worth the trip also.

[steven c newman]

Used to drive past the place...on my way to North Hil, Akron, OH...back in the early 70s.....was going to a Trade School in Cuyahoga Falls, oH

Also remember there was an airfield along the way ( Fairview, OH ?) that had a WW2 B-26 Bomber parked near the roadway....St Rt 18...


Now a days, I can visit the two Piatt Castles about 15 minutes from my house....

[steven c newman]

The Piatts made most of their money, and the Castles around the mid to late 1860s.....Castle Mac-a-Cheek I think is open for tours. Castle Mac-a-Chee is not...The one that is open, is at the corner of St Rt 245, and Logan County Road 1 ( Ludlow Rd.)

[Warren Mickley]

Impressive, did you take any images of the linen fold you mentioned?

jtk

I found a picture of linenfold at Stan Hywet.
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This house was built 1912-15. In this era there were several kinds of carving: hand carving. machine carving, machine carving dressed by hand, and pressed carving, where a die is pressed into the wood at tremendous pressure. It is common for several of these types to be found in the same house, and close inspection, along with a familiarity is sometimes needed to identify the method. I think in this case the linenfold was done by hand, but the carving above the linenfold panels strikes me as machine carving.

We call this style Gothic Revival. It is reminiscent of English work from the 16th century or so. One of the mansions that was an inspiration for the architect for this work was built 400 years earlier than Stan Hywet. An awful lot of oak work has been dyed rather dark over the centuries, but a lot of stuff made in Stan Hywet era was called "golden oak", referring to the color, not the species.

I once made fourteen linenfold carvings for a Chicago church that was built at the same time (1912-14) The old carving was just a little on the sloppy side, and I wondered if even in that era carvers made stuff a little rough to make sure the viewer knew they hand made.
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[Mark Rainey]

Pete, looks like a good tour! Warren, fascinating info on the mix between hand & machine work.

[Jim Koepke]

I found a picture of linenfold at Stan Hywet.

Warren, Thanks for posting the images and the accompanying information.

jtk