About
David Suntrup Stoneworks
Stonework in St. Louis, Farmington,
Bonne Terre and the surrounding region.
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Natural
stone. There's nothing else you can add to your
property that will create the feeling of harmony with
your surroundings more than stone. With stone
you can invite the timeless feel of wild hills and streams
in to your own backyard.
I love to build with native and local materials
or build with a pile of discarded stone torn down from
some earlier work. It is easy to build "New".
My joy though, is to build and have observers
guessing "Is this fifty or one hundred and fifty
years old?"
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My
love affair with brick and stone started at a very tender
age. I was three years old that Christmas morning when
I excitedly opened what seemed like a massive and very heavy
treasure chest. The heaviest packages were almost always
the best! It was a collection of smooth and beautiful
wooden building blocks . . . all these wonderful shapes and
sizes! I would sit transfixed for hours building and
then BAM . . . I would destroy my creations so that I could
start again.
After
a stint at Meramec Community College (Associate degree in
Human Services) and a couple of years of counseling troubled
teens, an old yearning began to eat at me. I wanted
to get my hands dirty. I met someone who was to become
the most influential person in my life (after dear old Mom
and Dad). His name was Jim Weatherly. He was an
old (seemed at the time) weathered bricklayer who came to
St. Louis from the hills of Tennessee to make his fortune
during the great depression. He was orphaned at the
age of 8 and grew up with his uncle's family on land so poor
and steep that "the cows had two legs shorter than the
others."
Jim
had a wealth of wise old country sayings. If things were going
well it was "We're cluckin' in the hub" or "it's
just like eatin' lettuce, ain't it?" If someone
was hard to get along with, he'd say "He'd complain with
a loaf of bread under each arm!" or, much worse.
After serving in the Pacific Theater during World War II he
apprenticed as a bricklayer during the building boom after
the war. I will be forever grateful to Jim for all that
he taught me about work and life. He taught me to lay
brick and build fireplaces and with an easy, dogged persistence
showed me how much two men could accomplish in just one day.
Two
years later, I started my own little business and have been
working for myself ever since (26 years). With fairness,
integrity and word of mouth advertising I have managed to
stay busy all these years. I believe that once a job
is started, it must be finished before beginning something
else.
About
23 years ago I was rebuilding a stone porch in South St. Louis
when I was approached by a hunched up 76 year old man who
seemed ancient to me at the time. His name was Frank
Kirshl. He walked up, introduced himself and said, "Hi,
I've been watching you boys. I've laid stone for 50
years and can't stand retirement . . . My hands are itching
to pick up a trowel and I think I can show you boys a few
things." Frank's family had been stone masons in
Croatia for many generations. My love affair with stonework
blossomed in that period. Every time I would get a stone
job I would call old Frank and he would come out and help
. . . cussing and bossing the entire time! I still can
and sometimes do lay brick, but stonework became my passion.
So,
I invite you to take a few minutes to study some of the photos
of my work. I would be happy to come and talk to you
about how a patio, path, raised bed, dry creek bed, rock garden,
pond and waterfall, or timeless dry stacked retaining wall
can add natural beauty and harmony to your outdoor space.
Or, if you want to bring the natural and rustic beauty of
stone indoors, I look forward to showing you how stone walls,
floors and fireplaces can add ageless beauty and warmth to
your home.
©2006 David
Suntrup Stoneworks www.stoneworkstlouis.com all rights reserved
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