Long ago, in every town and city there was a big department store. Everyone who grew has memories of that up during those times store. In Dayton, Ohio the store was Rike’s. With the advent of “The Mall”, downtowns began to change and department stores all over started to close. People in Dayton tried to save the old building, but eventually they decided to take it down. The space left after the building was gone would be used for the new Benjamin and Marian Schuster Center for the Performing Arts. I watched the building implode on the local news, then I set my goal. I would build a fiddle out of wood gathered from the old Rike building, and that fiddle would be played on the stage of the new Schuster Center.

This picture shows the wood in the back of my truck just after the building was demolished. The softwood was Douglas Fir, the hardwood was Butternut and there was a little Maple for banding and what not. As I started telling people about my project it seemed everyone in Dayton who grew up during those times had a story of something good that happened at Rike’s. While building the fiddle I relived my own memories of shopping at the downtown department store in my own home town.

One of the greatest nights of my life was the opening of the Schuster Center. Leora Kline, a violinist for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra played the Rike fiddle. That night, I heard Stravinsky’s “Firebird” played on a violin I made.

Maple, walnut and cherry. I made these fiddles for the fun of it. Ice cream is fun. These fiddles are fun to look at and they are fun to play. The fronts are made of a beautiful piece of western cedar, look at the colors. The backs are baby blocks and ocean waves, patterns as old as the hills.

These instruments show my most recent design. The sound is exceptional, the harmonic overtones are always ready to come out and play. Sweet fiddles.

The phone rang and a woman started speaking quickly, “I want you to make some fiddles for me. They’re taking my grandparent’s barn down. I would love to have some fiddles made out of the wood from that old barn. It would be a great way to remember them..”

“OK.” I answered, “When are they actually taking the barn down?”

“Now” she said. “They’re out there right now. You’ve got to come here right away.”

I went right over, and sure enough they were dismantling the barn. I did my best to scavenge wood for some instruments. Some of the wood was over 150 years old, air dried to perfection, but in terrible shape. I kept looking for something useful. Mostly it was wide grain oak which I had to fill and stabilize. Some pieces were heavily stained lending real character. The soft wood was in better shape, and I got a nice down-home farmer’s fiddle tone out of it.

Turns out the barn belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Winston who were among the first settlers in Centerville, Ohio. It was a great project. I built two fiddles, the farmer and his wife. All the while I thought about the kind of people they must have been to journey to Ohio, build a farm and start a town together. In the fiddles at their grand daughter’s home they are remembered fondly and every once in a while they still make music together.