Legend of the Lumber: Handcrafted Dining Tables Tell a Story

CEDARVILLE, Ohio, Aug. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Catching up. Shootin' the breeze. What's the latest? Swapping stories is a common ritual at the dinner table. But for 2013 Cedarville alumnus Phil Kochsmeier, the stories in the table are as important as the ones around it.

Kochsmeier, owner of Maple Street Woodworking and a Cedarville resident, was contracted by Cedarville University last fall to build two 7-feet-long by 3-feet-wide tables for the new Chick-fil-A opening on campus this fall. But these wouldn't just be any tables from any wood, but tables crafted from timbers at the old Cedarville Hardware store.

The Chick-fil-A at Cedarville University officially opens for business on Saturday, Aug. 15, the same day students begin returning to campus for the fall semester.

Cedarville Hardware, owned by Glenn Fawcett until his passing in 2017, was purchased by the university from the Fawcett family in 2018. That building is now the Cedar Care Village Pharmacy, located at the corner of St. Rt. 42 and St. Rt. 72. 

In the process of recreating the hardware store into a modern-day pharmacy, a substantial portion of the old structure was removed, including floor boards and floor joists. That's when Rod Johnson, Cedarville's associate vice president for operations, had a vision for repurposing the 19th century rough-hewn white oak.

"As I looked at those oak boards, I wondered if there might be a way to use them," Johnson said. "Then I thought about the new Chick-fil-A and realized we could probably use some of that lumber for tables. I love to reuse older, still viable building materials, and we had a chance to connect the old with the new."

Dedra Wrigglesworth, manager of facilities services, knew the right person for that transformation.

Kochsmeier, who was helped prepping the lumber by current Cedarville student Gus Dickson, believes the wood could be at least two centuries old. Cedarville Hardware was built in 1892.

"That building was constructed over 120 years ago," he said. "That wood could have started as a sapling well over 200 years ago. That's kind of fascinating to me."

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,380 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.

Mark Weinstein
937-766-8800
[email protected]

SOURCE Cedarville University

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http://www.cedarville.edu