Pete Taran
12-16-2018, 12:30 PM
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:
398927
398928
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:
398929
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:
398930
A view of the ceiling of the dining room:
398931
A view of painted carvings along the ceiling in the children's bedroom wing of the estate:
398932
A shot of a stairway detail, a panel between the rail and the floor:
398933
A particularly nice quartersawn step:
398937
Anyone traveling through North East Ohio might want to stop by for a look.
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:
398927
398928
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:
398929
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:
398930
A view of the ceiling of the dining room:
398931
A view of painted carvings along the ceiling in the children's bedroom wing of the estate:
398932
A shot of a stairway detail, a panel between the rail and the floor:
398933
A particularly nice quartersawn step:
398937
Anyone traveling through North East Ohio might want to stop by for a look.