Business

Hearth Art created by local tradesmen

The makers of the new hearth at Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards were, from left, brick masons Junior and Tater, stone masons Keith Pryor, Harold Pryor and Kevin Pryor and brick mason and foreman Gary Kitchen.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 25, 2015

When brick mason Gary Kitchen asked Alan Ward just how big a hearth he had in mind for his winery tasting room, Ward said big — like Cracker Barrel big.

The Cracker Barrel version, as it turned out, is puny compared to the one Kitchen and a crew of stone masons finished last month.
Made up of select Tennessee fieldstone and 7,000 bricks, the 15-foot hearth surrounds a 12-foot fireplace. Brick by brick, stone by stone, the work of art spread out and up. They don't make 'em like this anymore and that's what Ward wanted — the old way. Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards, the winery that the financial adviser and Henderson County native opened three years, has always hued to a theme of growing local, buying local, supporting local and showcasing local.
The Pryor boys, who played basketball at Edneyville High School, stayed close to home and down to earth. They're rock stars, expert hands in a centuries old construction specialty that has just about vanished from the landscape.
Although real stonework is too expensive and too time-consuming for most builders, the Pryors have managed to stay busy creating inside and outside walls of fine homes in places like Champion Hills and Walnut Cove.
The foreman of the whole job was Gary Kitchen, a brick mason who like the Pryors appreciates his old craft and tries his best to keep it alive. Kitchen created the firebox and the chimney, using an estimated 4,000 bricks on the interior and 4,000 bricks on the outside.
"There's not a whole lot of people doing a firebox," Kitchen said. "They're not doing it because of the cost. But if we don't do it, we'll lose it."
The Pryors placed each stone, and cutting each one by hand if necessary.
"That whole thing is probably 12 to 13 tons," Harold Pryor said, nodding toward the wall of ancient stone dappled with earth tones of gray, charcoal, chalk and sand.