Southampton Library's Beloved Tree Is Granted A Second Life By Woodworker

It was far from a perfect specimen, but it had sentimental value that made it worth preserving.An enormous copper beech tree, estimated to be around 100 years old—possibly older, according to some—had, for as long as anyone could remember, been a fixture near the entrance to Cooper Hall at Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton Village. The tree looked its age, with gnarled, knobby branches, and pockmarks, bumps and fissures on its trunk.

And it was dying.

For years, library staff had gone to enormous lengths to prolong the tree’s life, consulting with arborists to address, among other problems, root rot and dead branches. Some believed the tree had been there since the 1800s, possibly arriving as a sapling aboard a boat that was shipwrecked nearby, according to library director Liz Burns, who said she heard that story from Claire deGroot, whose uncle used to live in the house that is now Cooper Hall.

But by late 2013, with several large limbs already gone, and other dead limbs posing a safety hazard to people and parked cars, it was clear that it needed to be removed. It was taken down that November.

Library staff watched from the windows that day as one patron embraced the tree in a good-bye hug, while another cried. The tree was beloved not only by library patrons but by members of the staff as well, which led to an effort by the library’s Board of Directors to preserve a piece of the tree in some way.

Rich Warren, who was the library’s board president at the time, suggested that parts of the tree could be used to make some kind of furniture. He connected with Southampton woodworker Tom Matthews on a recommendation from builder Ken Wright of Wright and Company.

“They said he’s a guy who has done pretty special things with wood,” Mr. Warren recalled this week, referring to Mr. Matthews, adding he thought the tree was simply too special and iconic to be completely discarded.

Mr. Matthews then began the long and arduous task of turning pieces of the tree into a large table. It was a painstaking and difficult process that took more than three years, but it was finally finished last week, and now serves as a boardroom table inside Cooper Hall.

The library raised most of the $5,000 needed to pay for the table by soliciting donations, while Mr. Matthews agreed to absorb the rest of the cost.

Mr. Matthews seems to have been the perfect fit for the job. Soft-spoken and unassuming, he specializes in using salvaged and recycled wood, as well as local trees, to make unique pieces of furniture, and he often works with pieces of wood from start to finish. He works his magic in his Southampton shop that includes a sawmill and kiln, tucked away in a corner in an industrial building on Powell Avenue. Nearly every square inch of space is covered with pieces of wood, in an endless array of shapes and sizes, and the smell of cedar thickens the air.

In an interview this week, Mr. Matthews said his first task once he took on the job of turning the beloved tree into a table was to temper expectations.

“I went to take a look and I tried to discourage them,” he said. “They wanted this big monster slab, six or seven feet in diameter, and the only parts that were usable were a few branches way up top.”

Mr. Matthews explained that the interior of the trunk was full of tar, cement and metal—remnants of the efforts to keep the tree alive. But despite the challenges it presented, he was drawn to the tree, he said, explaining that it reminded him of a tree he’d worked with while growing up in upstate New York.

“I told them, ‘It’s not going to be what you dream it is,’” he recalled this week. “I told them they were taking a gamble. It turned out to be a lot of work. We barely had enough wood to make it.”

Copper beech trees, Mr. Matthews explained, are ornamental trees, favored by landscapers because they are aesthetically pleasing, with twisting and curving branches full of character and beautiful foliage. Nice to look at—but not so easy to work with. The wood has a propensity to rot, and this particular tree’s age and all its wounds made it a challenge.

Much of the past nearly four years was spent allowing the wood to dry out and cure, a painstaking process that Mr. Matthews called “kind of an art form,” noting that the wood twists and turns during that time, which naturally changes what the woodworker can do with the pieces. Once that process was complete, Mr. Matthews said he finished the table in just 10 days.

Mr. Matthews said he was happy with the finished product, not because he thinks the table itself is particularly beautiful, but rather because of what the tree represented.

“I like to think of it as giving [the tree] another life,” he said. “Why not give it another home? We tried to make something out of it. It takes awhile, and it takes a certain kind of person. And patience. If you get too greedy, you probably get nothing. You just have to be gentle with it and rework it later.”

Ms. Burns and the rest of the library staff say they were thrilled with the final result, noting that the response from patrons has been overwhelmingly positive as well.

“People can’t believe the wood came from the tree and they’re blown away by the talent of Tom,” she said. “There’s a huge sense of pride and gratitude that the tree lives on in the table.”

Ms. Burns added that the table is about a foot longer and five inches wider than the former table in the meeting room, creating extra space.

She spoke about why the tree seemed to elicit such strong emotions in people.

“Its majestic size lent itself to being loved,” she said. “The girth of the tree was huge, and it was quite a sight when you got up close. Back when we were still trying to save the tree, a patron wrote me a note and said that, ‘When we park near the library, I always greet it with a hello.’”

Mr. Matthews said that he was glad he took on the job.

“It was a challenge and it’s fun to see what you can extract out of something,” he said. “How close you can run to the edge and still have a relatively successful product. It had cracks and history, but as long as everyone is on board with that, it’s a wonderful thing.”

Mr. Warren agreed.

“It would have been cheaper to get rid of it,” he said. “But I didn’t think that was the right thing to do. And after seeing photos of the table, I know we made the right decision.”