Wood Studio, given to the residency program by Mrs. Frederick Trevor Hill, was completed in 1913 in memory of Mrs. Hill’s mother, Helen Ogden Wood.
Like Schelling Studio, the building is sided with large, overlapping pieces of hemlock bark. When the studio was renovated in 1995, MacDowell staff researched the origins of this unusual building material and learned that it was commonly used at the turn of the 20th century in logging camps to sheath temporary worker’s housing. Further research alerted the contractor harvesting the bark that it can only be removed from the trees during one or two weeks each year in June, when the sap is flowing most strongly. Suitable hemlock trees located on the property were harvested to restore this beautiful studio to its original state.
Without receiving surface treatment of any kind, the original bark siding had lasted more than 90 years. The second application is expected to last just as long.
