Students at Bill Carney’s Chattanooga Woodworking Academy learn many skills during their four years of study at the school on Market Street. They learn to sharpen everything from knives to planer blades, and how to design and make everything from seemingly simple cutting boards to log cabins.
Carney also stresses the importance of being good business men and women, and to that end, the school has opened a small retail store inside the lobby of the Chattanooga Choo Choo just two blocks away.
If you go
› What: Chattanooga Woodworking Academy,› Where: 1604 S. Market St.› What: Chattanooga Woodworking Academy Story, 1400 Market St.› Phone: 423-842-469
The partnership, which Carney proposed to Choo Choo President Adam Kinsey several months ago, helps to animate the historic tourist attraction’s lobby, gives the school a public face and helps the students make a little.
Kinsey said it works for all involved.
“We think it just adds another cool activation to the property and the dome lobby itself,” he said.
“It’s something the locals and tourists can enjoy. They like seeing the craftsmen of the academy and their work.”
Kinsey said the new location help more people see the work of the academy.
“Personally, I think it’s really cool that it gives the academy a retail location,” he said. “They’ve been in business for so long now, and they are just a couple of blocks down the street but at the same time, they’ve been kind of unknown.
Ryan Walker was one of three original graduates of the academy in 2017 and is now an instructor at the school and is in charge of The Store. Visitors to the The Store, which is currently open on Saturdays and Sundays or by appointment, carries everything from smaller pieces such as bowls, hand-carved cutlery, picture frames, cutting boards, coasters and a couple of pieces of furniture.
The pieces are there either on consignment or, “We will buy the products outright and they get a majority of the sale,” Walker said. “The whole intention is to give students of the academy the opportunity to market their wares.”
“It’s really helpful for our beginning students because they aren’t able to make the fine furniture yet, so they take things they learn the first semester and make money,” he added
Carney said The Store tries to limit the costs of items to $50 or less, but the larger pieces are more, and of course, the larger goal is that shoppers will visit the school and either buy or commission other works.
The 100-square-foot space is across the lobby from Cornerstones Inc., the local organization dedicated to historic preservation. The Choo Choo recently donated the Terminal Station to Cornerstones, which has launched a campaign to restore the space, in particular the dome.
Carney worked with Cornerstones’ Executive Director Ann Gray to design the space to make it in keeping with the historic space.
“We made it look like a red caboose,” Carney said.
The Academy staffs The Store from noon to 8 p.m. each weekend day has plans to have students on site actually working on projects and answering questions on days when the Choo Choo is busy with tourists in the future.
“We are able to share what we do whether people are interested in being a full-time student and in our hobby classes,” Walker said.
“We talk about the furniture we make build, carpentry in general even the log cabins we build.”
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.