Some projects start with lumber.

This one started with a piece of brass… and a family’s history.

Over a hundred years ago, this family owned a bank. Inside that bank stood a brass teller gate. Day after day it would swing open and closed as people stepped forward to deposit their savings, cash their checks, and conduct the small everyday moments that made up life in that town.

When the bank eventually closed, most things disappeared.

But not the gate.

For generations it was kept safe and passed down through the family. Not because it was flashy or worth a fortune… but because it represented where their story began.

Eventually they came to me with an idea.

Instead of leaving the gate sitting in storage, they wanted to give it life again. They wanted it to become part of their home — something their family could gather around and share.

So together we designed a cabinet built around that original brass teller gate, turning it into a liquor cabinet where the past and present could meet.

Now the same gate that once opened for bank customers opens during evenings with friends, family conversations, and celebrations. A piece of the early 1900s living quietly in the corner of their home, still doing what it always did…

Bringing people together.

But the cabinet itself isn’t the most important part.

The story is.

Every step of this piece was documented so that long after we’re gone, the next generation will know exactly where it came from and why it was created.

That’s what I love about building furniture.

Sometimes it isn’t about making something new.

Sometimes it’s about giving history another hundred years to live.

If you have a piece of your family’s history and want to give it new life, I’d love to help tell that story.

Email: a.woodworks@hotmail.com