An historic red oak blew over, but will still be part of Howell history
HOWELL — A towering red oak tree blew over in a 2021 storm in front of a Howell landmark, but that wasn't the end of the tree's more-than century-long story.
Local woodworker Garrett Roberson is building custom furniture from the tree's wood, which will outfit a room in the McPherson Mansion, 915 N. Michigan Ave., where the tree once graced the front yard. The iconic mansion was built in 1915 by one of Howell's founding families and the tree was already growing when the home was built.
"We didn't do a painstaking ring count, but we estimate it was about 150 years old," Roberson said. "It was safe to assume it had been there before they built the mansion."
"It’s been on this property longer than any of these building. That’s part of what makes it special," Roger Myers said.
Roberson noticed when the tree fell and pitched the idea of using its wood to construct furniture to Howell attorneys Roger and Kelly Myers, who own the mansion and use a portion of it for their firm Myers & Myers.
Roberson had recently started his own woodworking business, HMR Custom Woodcraft, while holding a full-time job. He said he was driving by the mansion one day and saw potential in the fallen tree.
He said the tree produced about 2,500 board feet of lumber. He used about 1,000 board feet to make a conference table, buffet-style cabinet and a book pedestal for the McPherson Mansion. He also made some picture frames.
Myers said they placed a copy of a previous Livingston Daily article about Roberson and the tree in one of the frames.
Roberson said he is storing the remaining wood at his home in Oceola Township to use for other woodworking projects or to sell to other woodworkers.
The Myeres hired Roberson to make furniture for the home's Taft Room, a conference room in the mansion named in honor of President William Taft, who visited the home. The room is a common-use area in the building for office tenants; it was a dining room when the McPherson family occupied the mansion.
The one-time home was built by Robert Bruce McPherson, the grandson of pioneer, blacksmith and businessman William McPherson, who settled in Howell in the mid-1830s.
Robert Bruce McPherson was involved in establishing a number of the family's businesses, including the McPherson Oil Co. He was a director of McPherson State Bank and was involved in the community as a charter member of the Howell Rotary Club, as well as in many other ways.
The building remained a home for nearly a century until the Myerses purchased it in 2007. They built an addition in back and restored a carriage house for a medical practice's office.
"It will be a great addition to that room. It will add to the stature of the room, and display an historical artifact of the property," said Roger Myers, who is also school board president for Brighton Area Schools.
It has taken Roberson around a year since he started the process. The wood had to dry before it could be milled into lumber for furniture.
He took on a few other woodworking projects while he was waiting for the McPherson Mansion lumber to be ready to work, including a custom bar-height table made of white oak and steel for a customer.
He said he has been making special benches to give to his cousins. He collected lumber out of his grandfather's old barn when the family sold it last year.
"I'll be doing a couple more of those once I'm done with this whole (McPherson Mansion) thing," he said.
Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Eberbach at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: An historic red oak blew over, but will still be part of Howell history
