Craftsmanship and Collaboration Leave an Enduring Mark at the Woodsmalls’ Nelson County Home
By: Anna Eileen White / Photos Courtesy: Jonathan Mitchell, Simply Branding
Tucked where winds sweep between blue peaks and race among receding foothills, a lodge and cottage stand. Framed by summer’s mature greens, panoramic pastureland, and layered ridges, the two buildings watch over storied grounds—grounds that owners Don and Barb Woodsmall have spared no expense coaxing back to life and infusing with their own stories. These buildings are Roseland Lodge and Helen’s Cottage.
Since 2005, Don and Barb have completed project after project here, most recently engaging Corey and Lindsey, founders of Shrader Stone, to build a sauna using river rock gathered from the property and granite lintels salvaged from Danville textile mills. The natural edges and organic tones seem to breathe in tandem with the surrounding landscape, a result of “thinking about what nature and the landscape are telling us,” according to Lindsey.
Don first thought the property had potential when he saw the 180-degree views; “It’s just unbelievable,” he said. A lover of history, he values the location’s authenticity, a quality that Corey says made their collaboration a good fit, “having other people around you that share the same vision and level of care about what’s happening is really nice.”
Corey and Lindsey specialize in creating unique outdoor spaces using Old World stone masonry techniques and natural gardens that emphasize native plants. Though they both have their own specialty—Corey, masonry and Lindsey, gardening—they’re closely involved in each other’s process and share a love of sustainability, history, and working with their hands. “I love that type of project where the last time it was reassembled and touched by human hands was maybe 200 years ago,” said Corey. The Woodsmall estate fits the bill.
Roseland Lodge, which the Woodsmalls reserve as a guest space for friends both local and from distances as far away as Germany and Ireland, was constructed in 1922.
It was originally built using dead American Chestnut trees harvested from the area that were killed by the Chestnut blight. The original owner could hardly have imagined that an emphasis on local and salvaged materials would be revered so many years later.
In 1990, the building stood in disrepair and was acquired by Mark Smith, a Lynchburg figure known for his collection of rare automobiles housed at the corner of Main and 13th Streets in downtown Lynchburg prior to his passing. “He loved bringing things back to their original glory, but not making them unnaturally shiny and sparkly,” Barb said of Smith.
The Woodsmalls bought the property from Smith in 2005.
The Cottage, which the Woodsmalls have made their home, holds its own touching history. Upon learning that a nearby 80-year-old neighbor was born in the cottage in 1928, the Woodsmalls lovingly designated it “Helen’s Cottage.” A plaque now hangs in her honor by the front door, commemorating the friendship that grew between them before her death in 2015.
While both the lodge and the cottage have been through many iterations since Helen’s birth and death, the Woodsmalls’ updates all have one element in common: permanence. That’s what draws Don to stone.
“You never have to do anything to it, and 200 years from now, it’ll still be there,” he explained.
Corey said they’d originally thought of building double-faced stone walls on the sauna, but landed on a single-faced stone wall to preserve heat efficiency in the winter. Some of the river rocks were pulled from the perimeter of nearby fields where farmers deposited them over the centuries, others directly out of the Tye River where Corey and his team often retreated for lunch during construction. “It is just impossible to leave a good rock sitting there on the riverbank once you’ve seen it,” he said.
The sauna was Corey’s first experience with Cotswold architecture, a special request from Don, who loves the English style featuring stonework and a steep roof pitch with no overhang. Don also requested that Corey use minimal mortar, a technique which means the mason must work with the natural contours of the stones. “A lot of guys put stone up and put a foot of mortar around it and then another rock way over here,” Don explained. “That’s easy, anybody can do that, but to make them all fit together like Corey did, that takes talent.”
The salvaged lintels, some still sporting flecks of paint from their more polished days, form steps descending from the patio to the sauna. Quoins and headers chiseled from the same lintels accent the doorframe along with a cross. Don says the cross represents his and Barb’s worldview, a worldview he hopes his grandsons know and share when they own the property one day.
One more step forward through the doorway and the resinous scent of cedar hangs in the air—this spot is Don’s retreat at the end of most days, an easy choice seeing as he can heat the sauna with the touch of a button on his phone.
“It was great collaborating with a long-time friend and long-time customer,” said Corey, whose craftsmanship is seen elsewhere across the property in the form of lintel steps, pillars, and foundation work. Lindsey agreed, “We have the most fun clients. There are faster and cheaper ways to do this, but I think we’re all getting tired of things that break.”
For the Woodsmalls, these thoughtfully crafted outdoor spaces are perfect for enjoying mornings and evenings accented by bird songs and wildlife sightings, but the stories of friends from far and near enjoying the spaces with them seem to be their favorites. Barb’s top memories on the patio? “I think it would always involve grandkids,” she said, smiling.
