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Popular PBS woodworking show plans Fredericksburg-related episode to air early next year Date published: 5/11/2005 By LAURA MOYER A Fred-centric episode of "The New Yankee Workshop" television show will focus on two of the city's defining institutions, the Rappahannock River and the Kenmore mansion. The show's executive producer, Russell Morash, was in town yesterday to scout locations for a planned June taping of the show, in which renowned craftsman Norm Abram shows home woodworkers how to make their own versions of notable historic furnishings. Sometime in the show's 18th season, which begins in January 2006, "New Yankee" devotees will watch Abram make a table patterned after a circa-1750 Virginia-made corner table in Kenmore's collection. Abram will use wood salvaged from the 1854 crib dam on the Rappahannock. The crib dam was removed along with the newer, concrete Embrey Dam, which was breached in February 2004. Wood from the crib dam--massive pine and oak timbers that had been underwater for 150 years--was originally destined for disposal along with other rubble from the former Rappahannock dams. But the river advocacy group Friends of the Rappahannock asked the city to donate the crib-dam wood to their nonprofit organization, figuring they could somehow use it to raise funds. FOR Chairman Steve Robinson, a longtime woodworker and "New Yankee" watcher, suggested trying to interest the show in a Fredericksburg-based crib-dam wood project. Late last year, FOR Executive Director John Tippett sent a letter to the show. He included samples of sawn white oak, red oak and yellow pine produced from crib-dam wood by William Jewell, owner of the local business Historical Woods of America Inc. In January, the word came back that Morash Associates and co-producer WGBH Boston were interested in the Fredericksburg project for the 2006 season. The next step was to decide what piece of furniture Abram would build. Morash looked at photographs of several Fredericksburg-related furniture pieces before settling on the corner table from Kenmore. That piece appealed because of its age, elegance, size, functionality and simplicity. The table in the Kenmore collection is walnut, with pine as a secondary wood. The "New Yankee" table will be made mostly or entirely of oak, Morash said. Yesterday, Morash and WGBH publicist Kathryn Hathaway visited the crib-dam woodpile, where Jewell explained how the rough, massive timbers would be sawn into furniture-grade lumber.
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