A ‘Craftsman’ keeps his town’s history alive in Magnolia series
While there may be no museums in Eureka, the story of the coastal Northern California town is enshrined in its historic homes, buildings and artifacts. And it is that architectural record Eric Hollenbeck endeavors to keep intact in “The Craftsman.”
Currently streaming on Magnolia Network, the half-hour series follows the woodworker and master craftsman as he takes historic homes and forgotten treasures and gives them new life.
So whether it’s repairing and restoring the woodwork on a trolley car, rehabbing a window and call box at a historic mansion or making paint from simple ingredients, the owner of Blue Ox Millworks helps keep his town’s history alive for its residents while also showing that a career in the trades can be rewarding and fulfilling.
He maintains that when it comes to repairing a building or a bench, there is no single correct solution.
“You line a hundred craftsmen up,” Hollenbeck says. “You give them the exact same problem, the exact same project, you’re going to come up with a hundred solutions. The key word in that sentence that I just said is ‘solutions.’ Every one of them gets to the end result. How we get to it is our own way.
“That’s what being a craftsman is,” he continues. “That’s the love of what you’re doing. You’re figuring it out as you go along. There’s no right way or wrong way . ... There’s the end product, finished way. That’s what’s important.”
In addition to following his thought processes as he works on his various projects around town, the series also serves as a sort of Chamber of Commerce snapshot of Eureka, a picturesque fishing village about five hours north of San Francisco.
Hollenbeck has lived here his whole life with wife and business partner Viviana and both have a deep and abiding appreciation for its history and its edifices. And so they labor to keep them looking like the day they were finished.
“Sometimes I feel like a World War II monument man keeping these buildings going,” he says. “Because we don’t have a Louvre ... . Our Louvre is our city and we walk through it every day. It is an extremely beautiful place.”