Chris Hannaway, Master Mason, handles all the day to day issues at the building site. It is October 1979. Hannaway was tempted away from his job completing the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool to come to New York. Starting in July, he began training his work force of five apprentices. They are learning the stone mason’s trade in a way little changed since the Middle Ages.
“They are doing very well”
-Chris Hannaway
The Indiana Limestone blocks arriving at the worksite are of enormous proportions. They weigh in at over six tons each, fourteen feet long, five or six feet wide and either ten or fourteen inches thick. A stone cutting saw is the only machine on the site, apart from electromechanical hoists. The machine cuts the stone into manageable proportions. The saw, like the master mason, came from England and has been cutting stone for about 40 years. After this, the trainee masons have to cut the blocks into the right shapes using chisels. In the beginning, they have concentrated on the easiest stones which are rectangular cuboids. These stones have notches in them so they fit with the adjacent stones when they are fixed in place on the tower.
Later, the apprentices will progress to more elaborate shapes that will be needed for the complicated geometry of the towers. The work rate at this point is very slow while the trainees are learning the trade. To finish one stone can take several days.
Master Mason
Chris Hannaway is a compact man with typical English features. He has a ruddy complexion, roundish nose, short but powerful arms, and barrel chest. His thick Liverpudlian accent and his morning cup of tea only add to the image. He began his apprenticeship in 1932 when there were about 400 masons in Liverpool alone. After World War II, English masons were busy rebuilding and restoring the structures damaged by the V-1s and V-2s. While this took place, modern techniques using stone merely as a facing material, were employed to speed reconstruction. These shortcuts and the adoption of steel and reinforced concrete nearly killed the masonry trade. The trade will never die claims Hannaway, “there will always be a need for skilled craftsmen to do restoration work”.
The stone yard grows, work progresses
By mid 1980, the apprentice ranks had swelled to 12 with the Harlem Commonwealth Corporation paying the salaries of 10 of these. One of the original apprentices arrives early one morning to work on the diamond circular saw. Timothy Smith is familiar with stone. He worked for several elder stonecutters in Vermont.
“When I started work here, Chris discounted all the experience I had in Vermont. He said in England I would have been called a wall builder, not a stonemason”
-Timothy Smith
Some of the hickory mallets that the apprentices use look like oversized wooden mushrooms. They have been part of the Hannaway inheritance for two generations now and are impossible to replace. A couple of them swelled, then cracked, during their first warm, moist summer in New York. Now they have deep clefts in their sides but still work better than most others Chris Hannaway can find in the area.