AJ is completing a book called "Civil War Woodworking" published by Linden Publishing due out September 1,2009

Our last stop was in Williamstown West Virginia and the shop and writing venue of A.J. Hamler.

I met A.J.  "On Line" a few years ago when he was editor of Woodcraft Magazine and commissioned me to build a couple of tables and write an article on them.

A. J. Hamler is a woodworking editor and writer who has written articles for  Wood Magazine, Woodshop News, Woodwork Magazine, and Woodworker’s Journal.  A.J. writes a bi-weekly blog for WoodshopNews and is the editor of The Collins Complete Woodworker, the author of several science fiction novels and short stories, and a Civil War reenactor.

I mentioned that A. J. is an active Civil War reenactor.  He appeared in the filming of "God's and Generals"

I had a chance to see several of the projects that will appear in the book including a chair he was in the process of building.

Here is a spool cabinet A.J. made and wrote about in American Woodworker Magazine.

I asked A.J. about his writing and where he got the idea for writing the book.

He said "A Little Bird told me"

It was a great visit to cap off a very busy 6 days. We drove through a rainy Ohio and finally found a bit of sun as we crossed back home into Michigan.

While in the Baltimore/Washington DC area we stayed with friends of mine from NDSU college days- Philip and Annette Anfinrud. Annette is a professional musician-She sings with the choir of St. John's Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. and Philip is a research chemist at the NIH - National Institute of Health.

We assisted in some research on Roof beer Floats.

Here  are their boys- Simeon, Gabriel  with Philip.

Eileen enjoyed the chance to play Annette's Yamaha grand piano.

On Sunday morning we drove into Washington D.C. and attended services at St. John's Church Lafayette Square.

Annette sings in St. John's choir.

The St. John's Choir comprises twelve professional singers who provide music for the worship of the parish and sing at the 11:00 AM Sunday service during the academic year (September through May.) The St. John's Choir also presents several Festival Choral Eucharists with Orchestra at the 11:00 AM service.

The church is one pof the oldest in the DC area.

Since 1969 St. John's has enjoyed the services of a pipe-organ built by Gress-Miles. After three years' extensive research and discussion, the Organ Committee determined that the organ was in need of extensive repairs and refurbishment, and that, rather than invest the time and money in such a project, the parish would be better served by purchasing a new instrument.

The Committee devoted several years to studying organ building, listening to instruments around the country, and discovering which builders might be suitable for St. John's. This intensive project led the Committee to recommend to the Vestry that the parish hire Lively-Fulcher Pipe Organs of Rocky Mount, Virginia to build a new instrument. The new organ was installed in March 2009 and is now being tuned, a process which takes about six weeks.

Known as "The Church of the Presidents" and registered as a national historic landmark, St. John's was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe to serve a growing residential community in the neighborhoods in the western end of Washington, including those adjacent to Lafayette (then called President's or Federal) Square. James Madison and several early presidents after him were communicants, as were more recent chief executives.

St. John's first service was held in October 1816. From that time to the present, every person who has held the office of President of the United States has attended a regular or occasional service at St. John's. Pew 54 is the President's Pew, and is reserved for the chief executive's use when in attendance.

The bell in St. John's steeple weighs nearly 1,000 pounds. It was cast by Paul Revere's son, Joseph, at his Boston foundry in August 1822 and installed at St. John's on November 30, 1822. President James Monroe authorized a $100 contribution of public funds toward the purchase of this church bell, which also served as an alarm bell for the neighborhoods and public buildings in the vicinity of the church. St. John's bell is one of two Revere bells in Washington, both cast and installed in 1822. However, of the two, St. John's bell is the only one that has been in continuous service since its installation.

The sanctuary windows, depicting scenes from the life of Christ and other Biblical stories, are outstanding examples of both painted and stained glass as art forms. Windows in the original church contained transparent glass to let in as much light as possible, but in the late 1860s that changed when the existing clear glass was stained in patterns of grayish white ivy leaves. During the first half of the 1880s, the Vestry retained the services of Madame Lorin, Curator of Glass at Chartres Cathedral in France, to create 22 "painted" stained glass windows, including the vertical representation of Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper above the altar.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, considered by many to be our country's first professional architect because of his training in architecture and engineering, designed St. John's Church in 1815. He had emigrated from Great Britain in 1796, and in 1803 was appointed Surveyor of Public Buildings and Architect of the Capitol by President Thomas Jefferson. Latrobe was responsible for rebuilding the White House (then called the President's House) and the Capitol following the War of 1812.

Benjamin Hutto

Director of Music Ministry and Organist:

It was a rainy Sunday when we visited but I walked across the street and through the park to get a shot oops I mean a picture of the White House.

I paid my respects to Andrew Jackson's likeness then it was time to hit the road and our last leg home.