The Mill in the words of a former employee

In May 2011 I spoke with Jim Luton about Beckstoffers.  I ran across his name when he commented on a post on another blog about the closing of the Mill in 2007.  I tracked Jim down and he was gracious enough to talk to me. 

Jim is the first to admit that he’s not an expert on the Mill.   However, he’s interesting because although he wasn’t a long-term employee, he credits his short time at Beckstoffers for profoundly influencing his career.  He also said that he still dreams about the Mill from time to time.

Jim worked at Beckstoffer’s from late 1976 to 1978 and then again from 1980 to 81.  He got this job from a neighbor who had worked at the Mill and Jim took his place in a minimum wage position.  He credits a mentor named Albert Forster, a lifelong millworker, for shaping how he plans out a woodworking job. 

We also spoke about the production process at the Mill.  Jim stressed that it wasn’t an assembly line.  Instead each worker had ownership of his own project.  He further described that one was often handed a set of plans, they then picked out the lumber, cut it or shaped it as needed and put the job together.  

When we spoke about the workers at Beckstoffers, he recalled there being roughly 6 mechanics there then plus several yard guys.  They were run by Jimmy Hence.  Jimmy also ran the saws, both in the shed by the fire station and in the main building.  There was a guy by the name of Andy who was a draftsman and glazer.  Every now and then Luton would get to glaze a window sash.  There was a receptionist named Page.  She later worked at Richmond Camera Shop with his wife.

He described the volume of work as being quite busy.  To use his words “Business was humming along, near capacity.  Everyone worked 9 hour days, which meant every week you got 5 hours of overtime.”

Jim did a variety of architectural millwork projects that included circle and elliptical stairways, bay windows, arched doors, and various historical reproductions for Colonial Williamsburg and Agecroft Hall. He recalled making door frames in White Oak with architopes. 

 
He also remembered doing a project for the Ethyl Corporation.  He described working on the iconic cupola for their headquarters.  This bell-shaped roof was milled out of old growth Red Wood and was assembled in 3 or 4 sections  

For more about Jim’s work now in his own woodworking business, go here.

Bellevue Elementary School

Richmond, VA 

 

  

 

 

With the start of the new school year upon us, I wanted to highlight one of the elementary schools that Beckstoffers helped renovate, Bellevue School, located at 2401 East Grace Street in Church Hill.

A little history from the Richmond Public Schools Website about Bellevue:

This school replaced old Bellevue which had been named for Bellevue Hospital. The site was once the home of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Southerner who carried out Union espionage work during the Civil War. The cornerstone was laid on January 21, 1913, with Masonic ceremonies.

Bellevue opened during the 1913-14 session as an elementary school with pupils transferred from old Bellevue; in September 1915, it was converted into Bellevue Junior High School. It reverted to an elementary school in September 1919 (with the opening of East End Junior High School) and continued until June 1955. At that time, the pupils were allowed "as much leeway as possible" to choose among Helen Dickinson, Chimborazo, and Nathaniel Bacon schools. In September 1955, Bellevue became a school for Negro pupils.

In 1975, due to a fire at Bellevue, the program was temporarily relocated to Mosby. The school was scheduled for closure in June 1975, because the coal-fired furnaces did not meet the provisions of the Clean Air Act of 1970. This decision was reversed, and the program was housed at Bowler while Bellevue was being renovated in 1975-77 (furnace replacement, cafeteria and kitchen repairs, and fire damage repairs). During that same period, Bellevue was used by Whitcomb Court School when it had to be vacated due to detection of methane gas in the immediate area. In 1977, in appreciation for the school 's return to the area, the Church Hill Association donated funds to improve Bellevue's playground facilities.

In 1980, Bellevue was one of eight elementary school renovation projects.

There aren’t many Mill records related to the 1980 renovation, but there was a Millwork order placed by Davis Brothers Construction for $51,735 in March 1983.  The school’s website said the renovation was designed by SWA Partnership and cost $320,486

Bellevue Elementary is an attractive and important historic structure and the neighborhood school was mentioned in 2013 about possibly being closed due to a large budget gap that the School Board was facing.  Ultimately it was not closed but it did see some of its service area get rezoned.

Blandfield Plantation

In 1987 records indicate that Beckstoffer's provided over $105,000 in millwork to the restoration of Blandfield Plantation, a historic treasure near Caret, Virginia.  This is just one of a number of plantations that the Mill had a hand in restoring.

Although I haven't had the chance to visit this home, the care with which it has been restored is self-evident and reminds me of the James River plantations in Charles City county (close to Richmond) that I have visited.  They are a wonderfully unique tourist attraction which serve not only to show examples of great architecture but also to tell a compelling story of families that helped shape Virginia.  I hope to get to Blandfield soon.

For more on Blandfield see the attached link from the House and Home magazine.

The Executive Mansion

In a recent cover story done by Ed Slipek, Style Weekly chronicled the history of the governor's mansion, with a focus on the many, many renovations it went through.  Richard Beckstoffer, former owner of the Mill and grandson of the Mill's founder, told an interviewer in 2008 that Beckstoffer's played a role in one of those renovations. The article (see link below) talks briefly about the 1982 renovation when the mansion was inhabited by then Governor Charles Robb and his wife Lynda.  They found the quarters lacking and embarked on a half a million dollar renovation.

If Walls Could Talk: Through fire, a mob attack, years of remodeling and 58 governors, Virginia's Executive Mansion endures after 200 years.

Although I don't have a record of any other renovations, it seems likely that the craftsmen at Beckstoffer's provided millwork for other renovations of the Mansion, of which there were many.  Check out the article.  Slipek is a favorite of mine.

More revitalization at the Mill

Better Housing Coalition is close to finishing another phase of high quality housing at the Mill.  This time they are taking green building to the next level.  Click on the the link below for a great video about these units:

http://www.betterhousingcoalition.org/blog/bhc-builds-affordable-net-zero-apartments-for-seniors/

These apartments were one of the projects that I was invovled in while at BHC.  The design of these apartments fit in well with the Mill.

VHS Battle Abbey

The Virginia Historical Society broke ground in August 1990 on a $12 million expansion that doubled the size of its Battle Abbey headquarters in the Fan District in Richmond. This was one of six total expansions at this location from 1912 to 2006 in what is now a museum of over 200,000 square feet.

This expansion more than doubled the exhibition space within the
society headquarters and helped it become a more public-welcoming institution with a new a lecture hall complex, allowing it to offer more educational programs.

The new wing's design was unique at that time because it involved installing new windows that were specifically constructed to let in light while screening out harmful ultraviolet rays. In addition, sophisticated heating and cooling systems allowed for the precise control of the temperature in more than 25 different sections. Another innovation was the type of sprinkler system used.
This was the second largest job for the Mill in 1991. Total millwork sold to this job was almost $113,000 and the client was frequent contractor Taylor & Parrish. Battle Abbey represented over 10% of all work at Beckstoffer's that year.
For more information on the expansion of the Virginia Historical Society's headquarters go here.

The Founder of the Mill

Henry Beckstoffer was born in 1877 and hailed from Alfhausen, Germany.  He came to the United States in November 1893 and went immediately to Richmond. 

His first known profession was as a grocer.  He started the Beckstoffer's Lumber Mill in 1897. He lived  at 1130 N 28th, just a block away from the Mill.

(UPDATED) He was a father of five children and married to Sophie  Beckstoffer, also a native of Germany.  He died in 1958 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, along with Sophie.