Bill Lueders
David Morrow (left) and Robert “Buzz” Holland next to a chest made from oak paneling that “Bob La Follette leaned against.”
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, state archivists ran out of space to store wood and other materials removed from the Wisconsin state Capitol during renovations. And so, for just these few years, the contractors who performed this work were able to keep some of it.
At least that’s how Robert “Buzz” Holland tells the story. “My life,” he says as we ride together in his car, “is such a bunch of stories.”
Holland, 85, worked in his father’s lumber business as a teenager and again beginning in 1956, after he got back from serving in Korea and graduated from the UW-Madison. He eventually took over the business and runs it to this day, from his home near New Glarus.
In the 1990s, Holland came into possession of some oak boards that had been used as paneling in the Capitol. He bartered with an employee at Joe Daniels Construction Company, who was “happy to get rid of the wood because it was taking up his storage space.”
What most makes this wood valuable, explains David Morrow, is its “provenance.” He jokes about telling people their serving boards were once a wall Fighting Bob La Follette leaned against. “It’s a story every time somebody serves sandwiches.”
Wait — who is David Morrow? Isn’t this a story about Buzz Holland?
Morrow, Holland’s friend, is a woodworker and furniture maker who bought a dilapidated old schoolhouse in Cottage Grove in 2008 and lovingly restored it. Holland has taken me there. “We took it right down to the studs,” Morrow says, gesturing around him.
Located on Highway N just south of I-94, the old schoolhouse is now a thriving local art gallery (Gaston School Gallery) and coffee shop (SchoolGrounds Cafe). Morrow, working nights and weekends, was able to open it for art in 2010 and food and coffee in 2012. He’s proud to have done it in that order: “We started as a gallery. We’re not just a cafe that hangs art on the walls.”
A few years back, Holland decided to let Morrow take possession of the old oak boards — about 30 in all, each 6 feet long and 8 inches wide. A few have already been used for projects.
These include a beautiful oak chest produced by wood artisan Ed Wohl. For a while it was on display at an art gallery in Paoli; now it’s in Morrow’s cafe. The asking price is about $3,000, which Morrow considers a bargain.
Morrow plans to use the rest for projects, like cutting boards and coasters. He’s already made a few cutting boards for sale in his gallery. They don’t have much shelf life: “As I’m unpacking them, people see them and buy them.” As more cutting boards are offered for sale, “There’s going to be some really fortunate people, and not many of them.”
Look at the wood and you’ll see: These are not ordinary oak boards. Popping out of the grain are gorgeous lines and swirls known as flakes and medullary rays. These appear because the wood has been quarter-sawn — cut at an angle, not along the grain. A skilled sawyer can express these usually hidden elements.
Quarter sawing, Morrow acknowledges, is “a wasteful way to cut. It doesn’t make the best use of the log. But it makes the most stable product.”
“And the most beautiful,” Holland adds.
Yes, boards can be quarter-sawn from modern oak trees, but it’s not quite the same. The trees of yesteryear tend to have much tighter rings, because they competed for life in dense canopies, not in forests managed to produce maximum growth.
There are other distinguishing characteristics to this cache of special boards, like small nail holes. Morrow calls these “a visual reminder of their connection to the past” and thus a feature that adds value.
“Each one of these boards,” he says, “has a story to tell.”
Origin of oak in the state Capitol: From The Wisconsin Capitol — Official Guide and History, published in 1919, two years after the building was completed: “The inside finish was sawed from oak timber grown on the hill where the governor’s residence now stands.”
Wood-related Capitol controversy: From the state Capitol history page on Wisconsin.gov: “[In 1967] Dorothy Knowles, wife of Governor Warren Knowles, proposes to remodel the Governor’s Conference Room by covering over the dark cherry wood walls and gilded ceiling with white paint. The plan generates a great deal of publicity and opposition, but is approved....”
Unique properties of oak: From Oak: The Frame of Civilization, by William Bryant Logan: “The oak is not the oldest tree.... The oak is not the strongest tree.... And the oak is far from the fastest-growing tree.... The oak’s distinction is its insistence and flexibility.” It thrives in a wide range of locales.
