Retired builder preserves history

By Karen Middleton
karen@athensnews-courier.com

May 09, 2008 09:20 pm

— Bill Hughes was construction superintendent on some of the most impressive buildings in the area during the 33 years he worked for Martin & Cobey Construction.
But today, it’s the simple pleasures that bring the most joy.
Hughes has presented a handmade guitar to First United Methodist Church made from a furnace room poplar wood door jam he removed during the church’s 1996 renovation.
Hughes’ former boss, Fred Martin Jr., has accepted the guitar on behalf of the church and Martin’s son-in-law Brian Moore, who performs in one of the church’s praise bands, will play the instrument during the Sunday contemporary service in the Beasley Center.
The guitar’s Sunday premier performance is significant in many ways. Moore currently runs Martin & Cobey since Martin’s retirement, and Hughes was construction superintendent when the Beasley Center was built.
But what is amazing is seeing the unused portion of the door jam next to the finished product.
Martin said that only Hughes could have seen the potential beauty in the piece of poplar door jam that dates back to 1925-26. With chipped and scaling paint, the nondescript piece of wood looks like something for the burn pile.
In Hughes’ hands and plied with a series of handmade workshop tools, the subtle grains of the glistening wood curve gracefully into the shape of a guitar.
“I carried that guitar over to Martin & Cobey’s office and said to those guys, “Now, just how many of you would have enough vision to do something like this?” said Martin.
Hughes said he just began building guitars in January and has built about eight since then.
“You can build a couple at a time,” said Hughes. “You wet the wood down and then bend it and let it dry out. So you can be working on another while the one is drying.”

Found items
Hughes was the master of creating beautiful objects from found materials long before he began making guitars. When he wasn’t working on the dietary unit at the hospital, building Brookhill and Creekside schools or the health department, he noticed that materials, such as hardwood floors, come packed in oak crates.
He broke the crates down and built several nightstands and end tables throughout his Pat Street home that he shares with his wife Christine.
“The crates were just made out of reject wood that was not planed,” said Hughes.
Both the front porch and back patio of the Hughes home are paved in a mosaic pattern from broken ceramic tiles left over from jobs.
He has also constructed a homemade sander, lathe and router from found materials.
When it came to constructing the First Methodist guitar, Hughes needed a piece of wood measuring 62-1/4 inches and the door jam piece measured 63 inches. He planed the wood to the desired thickness, soaked it and put it in a press that is the outline of a guitar.
“Bill is a real craftsman,” said Martin. “You just don’t see that anymore.”

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