Stone walls have a bad habit - they crumble over time. Long years and gravity combined to illustrate this fact along some stretches of the stacked stone wall that surrounds the property at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church.
St. Augustine parishioner Larry Trabucco noticed the derelict condition of the wall for several years and figured he had to do something about it. He thought right away of Wade Axmacher, whom he’d known for 30 years and respected. When he asked Wade to make a recommendation for someone to redo the wall, Wade answered, in his deliberate and singular style, “Larry, right this minute you’re looking at the best stone stacker around these parts!”
If you’ve hired Wade for a job at your house, you know that he is a thinker and a designer. With deeply rooted ideas about what he’s doing as well as the right know-how, Wade feels that this ability is instinctive with him. He was born to build.
Members of St. Augustine’s, happy that the job was going to get done, donated the funding, and Wade went to work, straightening out 20 feet on both sides of the entrance to the church grounds.
A few years went by, and someone drove into the wall on the exit side of the driveway, knocking stones loose, so it had to be repaired as well. Wade consulted with Father John Dowling, the priest at the church, who approved his second round of stone stacking.
Wade told the Mirror that the builders of the original wall had used sandstone as the bottom layer, and what’s more, those stones weren’t flat but angled. When sandstone gets wet, it crumbles, turning back into stand, so it’s totally unfit for a layer that’s going to be exposed to rain, sleet, and occasional snow. Too, sandstone can’t withstand pressure. To demonstrate this to Larry, Wade picked up a huge round sandstone rock and dropped it against another rock, and the round stone was immediately pulverized. So, to guarantee the endurance of the wall, Wade took it completely down to the ground, eliminating the slanted sandstone rocks. He said, “When 100 years go by, and that wall is still standing, it’s because I got rid of the sandstone and used strong mountain stone.”
Larry complimented Wade’s ease in working with heavy stones, with some of them weighing about 500 pounds each, adding that the wall is equally beautiful on the back side as the front. Wade was happy with the work as well, bringing his dad, David Axmacher, over to see it.
Interestingly enough, Wade’s grandfather, Archie Cameron Axmacher, played an active role in building another part of the wall that runs around the church property. During the Depression, 16-year-old Archie got a job with the WPA to build the stone wall that runs up the W Road at the switchbacks. Pleased with Archie’s work, the WPA built the wall running up Laurel Avenue from Anderson Pike on the left-hand side of the St. Augustine’s grounds, extending to the Axmacher family homestead. And, on the McCoy property across the road, there stands a rock with Archie’s name and the names of other WPA workers chiseled in. Wade is justifiably proud of this history.
He’s also proud that he has been able to contribute to the distinction of St. Augustine’s campus. When you ride by the church, slow down and admire Wade’s beautiful, stacked mountain stone wall. As Larry Trabucco says, “Wade Axmacher is the Leonardo da Vinci of stacked stone walls.”
by Anne Rittenberry
St. Augustine parishioner Larry Trabucco noticed the derelict condition of the wall for several years and figured he had to do something about it. He thought right away of Wade Axmacher, whom he’d known for 30 years and respected. When he asked Wade to make a recommendation for someone to redo the wall, Wade answered, in his deliberate and singular style, “Larry, right this minute you’re looking at the best stone stacker around these parts!”
If you’ve hired Wade for a job at your house, you know that he is a thinker and a designer. With deeply rooted ideas about what he’s doing as well as the right know-how, Wade feels that this ability is instinctive with him. He was born to build.
Members of St. Augustine’s, happy that the job was going to get done, donated the funding, and Wade went to work, straightening out 20 feet on both sides of the entrance to the church grounds.
A few years went by, and someone drove into the wall on the exit side of the driveway, knocking stones loose, so it had to be repaired as well. Wade consulted with Father John Dowling, the priest at the church, who approved his second round of stone stacking.
Wade told the Mirror that the builders of the original wall had used sandstone as the bottom layer, and what’s more, those stones weren’t flat but angled. When sandstone gets wet, it crumbles, turning back into stand, so it’s totally unfit for a layer that’s going to be exposed to rain, sleet, and occasional snow. Too, sandstone can’t withstand pressure. To demonstrate this to Larry, Wade picked up a huge round sandstone rock and dropped it against another rock, and the round stone was immediately pulverized. So, to guarantee the endurance of the wall, Wade took it completely down to the ground, eliminating the slanted sandstone rocks. He said, “When 100 years go by, and that wall is still standing, it’s because I got rid of the sandstone and used strong mountain stone.”
Larry complimented Wade’s ease in working with heavy stones, with some of them weighing about 500 pounds each, adding that the wall is equally beautiful on the back side as the front. Wade was happy with the work as well, bringing his dad, David Axmacher, over to see it.
Interestingly enough, Wade’s grandfather, Archie Cameron Axmacher, played an active role in building another part of the wall that runs around the church property. During the Depression, 16-year-old Archie got a job with the WPA to build the stone wall that runs up the W Road at the switchbacks. Pleased with Archie’s work, the WPA built the wall running up Laurel Avenue from Anderson Pike on the left-hand side of the St. Augustine’s grounds, extending to the Axmacher family homestead. And, on the McCoy property across the road, there stands a rock with Archie’s name and the names of other WPA workers chiseled in. Wade is justifiably proud of this history.
He’s also proud that he has been able to contribute to the distinction of St. Augustine’s campus. When you ride by the church, slow down and admire Wade’s beautiful, stacked mountain stone wall. As Larry Trabucco says, “Wade Axmacher is the Leonardo da Vinci of stacked stone walls.”
by Anne Rittenberry
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