New sycamore tables enhance decor of Tamaqua Station Restaurant, owner and customers say
TAMAQUA — Guests in the Tamaqua Station Restaurant are accustomed to dining in an atmosphere steeped in history.
Built at the height of the Victorian era, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad’s distinctive Italianate station was designed to offer a welcoming atmosphere to travelers.
Renowned architect Frank Furness, who is believed to have designed the now-150-year-old station, fashioned a lobby of richly appointed hardwood.
John and Melanie Ross, who opened the restaurant eight years ago, recently enhanced the station’s classic look with the installation of custom-made hardwood tables.
In a bold move, the Ross’ chose tables made of sycamore, rather than the traditional walnut or cherry.
John Sienkiewicz, who built them in his West Penn Twp. workshop, highlighted the wood’s exceptionally rich grain.
“Sycamore tables are rare,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like them in an eastern Pennsylvania restaurant.”
The Ross’ installed 21 new tables in the restaurant’s dining rooms and café —18 are 30 inches square, while three are banquet-size high tops.
The centerpiece of the collection, a 7-foot-long, 40-inch-wide high top, is on display in the restaurant’s lobby.
Melanie Ross uses it as work space when taking reservations and preparing the menu. But some customers, she said, have requested to dine at the table.
“The tables have become a conversation piece,” Ross said. “People are intrigued by them, they’re definitely unique.”
The tree
Several years ago, Mike Heiter harvested a huge sycamore tree at a construction site in Berks County.
It was the largest tree he’d come across in 45 years in the lumber business, Heiter said.
Weighing an estimated 3 to 4 tons, the sycamore had a 50-inch diameter and a circumference of 153 inches.
The tree was left to dry for more than a year before Heiter ran it through his Lenhartsville sawmill.
Heiter is Melanie Ross’ brother and, naturally, she contacted him when looking to select a wood for the new tables in the station restaurant.
Sycamore’s strong, vibrant grain made it an easy choice.
“We’re not going to match this,” she said when shown the Sycamore.
Refining
At Sienkiewicz Custom Wood Craft shop, 9- and 10-foot slabs were worked on for about five months.
John Sienkiewicz and his sons, Brandon and Dakota, used a variety of saws and sanders to hone the slabs into 2½-inch-thick table tops.
“It takes a lot of patience to cut the wood right,” said Sienkiewitz, who started the wood shop as a hobby in 1995. “Cutting was a huge challenge, and a little dangerous.”
The natural grain was enhanced with epoxy before four coats of spar urethane were applied. Spar urethane has ultraviolet protection and uses resins that allow for expansion and contraction.
Mounted on wrought iron pedestals, the dinner tables weigh about 125 pounds. The high tops tip the scales at 250 to 300 pounds.
Table tops are stamped with the “Tamaqua Station Restaurant” logo and have the Sienkiewicz Custom Wood Craft mark underneath.
The tables, John Sienkiewicz said, were built with the Tamaqua Station Restaurant in mind.
“Each table has its own characteristics,” he said. “They were meant to be elegant, and they make a statement about the restaurant.”
Customers
One of the things that keeps Matt and Marcy Yacobenas, of Hometown, returning to the Tamaqua Station Restaurant is its connection with the past.
Matt remembers when the station was an eyesore before it was purchased by Tamaqua Save Our Station, the nonprofit that launched a $1.5 million restoration that made the building worthy of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Indeed, last year, the U.S. Postal Service included Tamaqua among five landmark stations honored with commemorative first-class Forever stamps.
Yacobenas, vice president of project management for J.D. Eckman Construction Co., admires the craftsmanship of the tables.
“They enhance the nostalgia of the station,” he said. “They help to maintain the building’s heritage.”
