George Gatewood, founder of Longwood Antique Woods, works to salvage vintage wood from an old structure. Longwood repurposes the wood to make flooring, furniture, cabinetry, beams, mantels and other goods.
George Gatewood has been reclaiming barnwood and then crafting it into something practical for four decades. He grew up in Mt. Sterling on a 600-acre family farm called Longwood Farm and dismantled his first barn as a kid. “I took down an old, falling-down barn when I was 10 years old and built a treehouse out of it in my front yard,” he said.
The owner of Longwood Antique Woods, Gatewood’s projects today range from installing wide-plank floors and ceiling beams to making conference tables and bar tops, cabinets and countertops, and dining room tables and kitchen islands from reclaimed wood. His clientele includes builders and architects, horse farms, distilleries, office buildings and private residences.
In the 1990s, Gatewood started out by selling barnwood to buyers in New England who treated and cut the wood for resale. He invested in his own equipment — planers and tongue-and-groove machines — and transitioned from wholesale to direct sales.
Gatewood traveled to trade shows in Chicago, New York, Denver and Asheville, North Carolina. Customers responded favorably to his reclaimed, sustainably sourced wood with its historical connection to Kentucky. “We also buy wood from Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Alabama every now and then when we need hard pine,” Gatewood said.
“People are excited to know where their wood came from,” he said. “The product really sells itself.”
Flooring made from wood planks from tobacco barns is the company’s most popular item. The Longwood staff calls it Shepherd’s oak, in honor of a property owner’s name in Montgomery County. Although that barn’s material has been used up, the name stuck. “It’s red and white oak with some patina on it,” Gatewood said, referring to its surface appearance. “Patina is a magic word in this business.”
Reclaimed wood installed by Longwood was incorporated into the design of the newly expanded Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
He has worked on several projects at Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. For the Samuels House, a historic guest house a half-hour north of the distillery, Longwood recycled rickhouse wood from Maker’s Mark for the beams in the kitchen. “Rob’s a good friend of mine,” Gatewood said of Rob Samuels, eighth-generation whisky maker and current COO of Maker’s Mark.
“Over the past six or seven years, we’re seeing a lot more uptick in commercial projects: restaurants, hotels and distilleries,” he said, citing Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve and Jim Beam, among others.
Longwood has been a longtime sponsor of the Kentucky Three-Day Event at the Kentucky Horse Park, putting up 100 stall doors in the sponsors’ tent and other tents.
Keeneland has been a Longwood customer, as have Ashbourne Farms in Oldham County, Three Chimneys and WinStar in Woodford County, Claiborne Farm and Xalapa Farm in Bourbon County, and Castleton Lyons and Gainesway Farm in Fayette County. Gatewood has also installed projects for clients in California, Wyoming, Florida and New York. In September, he was working on a 200-year-old hand-hewn log cabin in Robertson County. “I had a crowbar in my hand, and it felt good,” he said.
Longwood Antique Woods employs about a dozen people, who work in demolition, denailing, kiln drying, milling, installation and other production aspects, along with an office and sales staff. The business on Delaware Avenue sits on almost two acres, with sheds for housing fence planks and a 15,000-square-foot mill for processing lumber.
In addition to commercial projects, Longwood Antique Woods has installed flooring and features in many homes throughout Central Kentucky.
“A guy we’re proud of, who used to pull nails down here, is Tyler Childers,” Gatewood said of the Grammy Award-winning singer. “Back in the day, I had an extra room upstairs in my house. Tyler stayed there. [Bluegrass band] Town Mountain has stayed there. We’ve employed lots of local musicians over the years. We like to jam.”
Many of the staff are “artsy and musically inclined,” according to Gatewood, who plays harmonica.
“I love looking at a gray, weathered barn on a hill. Blue skies. Cattle in front of it. It’s romantic, driving around and seeing that,” he said. “Taking that beautiful piece of scenery and knowing it gets recycled in somebody else’s home gives me goosebumps. I love my job.”