VIDEO: 110-Year-Old Brooklyn Woodworking Business Faces Uncertain Future
WILLIAMSBURG — Wood shavings still lie where they fell. The walls of American Wood Column Corp. have held generations of sawdust and steady hands; little looks new inside. Outside, time presses on.
“Maybe that’s an omen, 2026. It’s also symbolic because I’ve been here almost exactly 50 years, full time. So that’s a nice even number to maybe close it out or maybe start anew again. You know, who knows. The molds themselves, they’re priceless, and they’re worthless. A lot of them are from my grandfather, and he got them used, so they’re pushing 200 years old,” said owner Thomas Lupo.
The business has been in Lupo’s family for 110 years. The St. John’s University graduate says anything that could be made of wood has at one point come from this place: columns, church altars, movie props — and during World War II, bombs.
But the slow disappearance of the trades and industry that were once the backbone of New York City may now topple American Wood Column too.
“Without being made here — there’s no need for what we do,” Lupo said.
It’s a job that takes patience and precision in an age of instant gratification at the click of a button. Lupo knows that if he closes his doors, New York loses one more place that did things the old-fashioned way.
“Nobody in my family wanted it to die,” he said. “New York is always changing. You have to respect the change, too. I always feel New York is the last hope for humans.”
But his loss is far greater.
“My father, my uncle, my two aunts were all born in this building. The desk that I sit at — my grandfather sat at 100 years ago,” Lupo said.
Through recessions, crashes, crises, and wars, American Wood Column refused to bend. So for now the lathe still turns. Lupo doesn’t know when it will stop.
“When I look at a movie or look at a show or something like that, it still shows up. The Corleone grave, the clock that comes out on Saturday Night Live. The buildings might come down. The sets will change. But the images of it will last forever,” he said.
The dust can’t settle if it’s still falling.