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Secret Wood Shops: Horner Park

Wood shops are disappearing from schools all over the country, along with art, home economics, drafting, and anything not considered to be directly related to standardized testing. This makes me deeply sad. Especially since DIY seems to be more celebrated than ever and a lot of adults AND kids want to learn to do things for themselves.

Which is why I am excited to share a very special secret with folks who live in Chicago. One that Steve from Chicago Two-Flat shared with me and that I was delighted to discover is much more far reaching than I had imagined.

The Chicago Park District has wood shops for Chicago residents. Seventeen of them to be exact. They aren't well advertised and it is difficult to find the master list of locations but I will be posting the master list on THIS VERY WEBSITE soon. So, whooo hoo! All of you apartment dweller crafty types, weekend DIY warriors and Norm Abram wanna-bees? This entry is for you.

We'll explore the wood shop in Horner Park so you can see what I am talking about.

The Chicago Park District doesn't make it easy for you to figure out the locations of these wood shops. You have to know which building you are going to seek them out in. But once you enter the building at Horner Park, there it is, hiding in plain sight.

Each wood shop is run by a shop master, who teaches classes, gives advice, helps to solve problems, and makes sure that the equipment is maintained. At Horner, that person for the last eight years would be Jim MacRoberts, artist and carpenter. Here pictured with his trusty sidekick, Skye.

Jim moved here from Massachusetts about twenty years ago and took up carpentry to support his family while working in his spare time as an artist. He began taking woodworking classes with the Chicago Park District and, when a position opened up as shop master, joined up at Horner Park.

I couldn't find out how old the shop was, but a few people I talked to in the main office guessed that it had been around since the late 1950s or early 1960s, a short time after the Horner Park Building was established.

Classes in woodworking are offered to the following three groups:

• Kids, 8 years old to 17 years old
• Adults, 18 years and older
• Seniors, over 55 years old

Adults and seniors bring in their own materials and can work on their own projects, under the guidance of the shop master who will teach them how to execute what they'd like to accomplish. The session environment is low on structure but high on access to tools and implements. Kids use mostly hand tools and work on more basic skills.

I asked Jim about his most memorable student. He described a 19 year old student who wanted to create a special rocking chair. He had no previous experience in woodworking but he had a design that he wanted to execute. Jim helped him to devise specific plans based on his design and taught him how to use the tools that he needed to build his chair...a large, heavy chair that he called the "Grandfather Rocking Chair." A truly ambitious first project.

Walking around the wood shop, I can see many inspired projects in process. Beautiful carvings and lovely furniture. A mission-style bed. A figure of Christ. A set of elaborate folk-art jig dolls or "limberjacks."

If you're in Chicago, stay tuned to see where your nearest Chicago Park District wood shop is located. New session sign ups start online at the end of November!

(By the way, if you are interested in some of these carvings, please contact Jim MacRoberts at his website. The limberjacks and some of these beautiful pieces are his and many are for sale. He also does custom furniture design and he is a painter. An impressive set of skills for a wood shop master who teaches others the craft!)

Here's the Flickr slideshow of my visit to Horner Wood Shop. Enjoy!

Posted by jeanne on November 11, 2007 at 9:33 AM (4)

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