In the Strater Hotel’s 93 guest rooms and common areas, few corners remain untouched by the hand of carpenter and craftsman Charlie Schumacher.
Schumacher built the front desk out of cherry. He used mahogany for the intricate staircase railings in The Office Spiritorium. Most of the beds he made from walnut.
Schumacher, 86, began working for the Strater in 1974. Years as a house painter had left him with lead poisoning, and he was looking for a safer line of work. After a stint doing carpentry for Loether Construction, Schumacher began hanging wallpaper and doing small jobs around the hotel for Earl Barker Sr., grandfather of current owner Rod Barker. Eventually, he was brought on full-time.
Despite a recent car accident, Schumacher continues to work on projects for the Strater and other clients. He’s building parts for the restoration of the Emma Sweeney, the wooden locomotive from the 1950 film “A Ticket to Tomahawk.”
“As long as you keep busy, your health’s a little better, and your body can take it better,” he said.
Schumacher was born and raised in Durango. He learned woodworking at school, taking shop class from fourth grade through his senior year at Durango High School.
Schumacher’s skill with tools astonish many who know carpentry. Tom Hahl, Schumacher’s successor at the Strater, said Schumacher uses tools in ways he wouldn’t have imagined. Schumacher has been featured in Wood Magazine, a publication produced by Better Homes & Gardens, among other publications.
Schumacher does most of his work in his shop, a converted garage behind his South Durango house on East Sixth Avenue. He’s lived there for decades since the lots around him were empty.
The shop revolves around the saws – Schumacher has a table saw, a board saw and a miter saw, among others. Sawdust covers the floor in places. A rack of lumber – oak, maple, alder, poplar, hickory – lines one side of the shop. There are personal touches, including the clocks whose handmade wooden gears keep time and his portfolio of watercolor art.
“I’ve got just about enough tools in here to do damn near anything I want,” Schumacher said.
The workbench has an ashtray for the Camels that Schumacher has smoked for 67 years.
“The doctor says it’ll kill you, but you’ve got to die of something,” he said.
Schumacher has ceded much of the day-to-day work at the Strater to Hahl, who moved from Denver eight years ago to work at the historic hotel. A former builder of custom homes, Hahl concedes he still had much to learn when he started apprenticing under Schumacher.
“All he did is just yell at me when I first got here,” said Hahl, a relative youngster at age 62.
Hahl began making notches in his shop when he got a compliment from Schumacher. Schumacher acknowledges Hahl has come a long way.
“When he first got here, I don’t think he had a tool that wasn’t either dull or broke,” Schumacher said. “He got that straightened out real quick. Now he’s taking real good care of them, and he’s doing a great job.”
The Strater Hotel, built in 1887, is among Durango’s most iconic landmarks. It has been in the Barker family since Rod’s grandfather, Earl Sr., was a partner in a corporation that bought the Strater in 1926. Rod Barker, 58, said he intends to continue as president and owner of the hotel for years to come. His daughter, Allison, is poised to become the fourth-generaton owner when Rod eventually steps back.
Part of the Strater’s appeal lies in its fidelity to Victorian aesthetics. That fidelity is insisted upon by Barker, and carried out by Schumacher and the Strater’s managers and staff. When the Strater renovates, quality takes precedence over speed.
“We don’t work quickly,” Barker said. “We work slowly and deliberately, and we do things more in-depth maybe than other hotels.”
Schumacher’s expertise has enabled the Strater to maintain and enhance its antique looks without the expense of bringing in outside help.
“Having somebody that could really reach out and do the craftsmanship that I dreamed of has made the difference between having a world-class hotel and just another historic hotel,” Barker said.
Schumacher will continue to lend his hand to keeping up the Strater’s Victorian looks as long as he can. Earlier this month, he helped a staffer install wallpaper in one room.
“Every time they get in trouble,” said Schumacher, “they call me.”
cslothower@durangoherald.com
