Restoration Road (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Waco Boathouse - full transcript

The Brazos River
in Waco, where I call home,

it flows gently
from its headwaters

in the Texas Panhandle,

all the way
to the Gulf of Mexico.

I see this river
all the time,

but to be on the river,
to be a part of the river,

is a completely
different experience.

What a beautiful morning.

Yes, it is.

Look at that, Kev,

look at that sun
poking through the...



That's beautiful.

That's Waco, Texas.

Kevin Durkin
from Heritage Restorations

has brought me out
to the Brazos this morning

because he has a new project
in mind.

A project that he hopes
will inspire our community

to get out and enjoy
this forgotten

natural resource right
in our own backyard.

I'm Clint Harp,
and I'm traveling America

to shed a light on some
incredible restorations

and transformations.

Get hands-on with some
of the builders,

bringing these amazing places
back to life,

and make sure
these new stories live on



for years to come.

Whoo.

Oh, isn't she a beauty?

This is Restoration Road.

That's a good row.

Oh.

I think this is definitely
one of the prettiest

places in Waco,

and I've never come out
of here.

Yeah.

Where are we?

We're looking
for a place

for the Waco Rowing Club,
to build a boathouse.

I didn't know
there was a Waco Rowing Club.

Well, there is.

We want to build
a boathouse for rowing,

not like this big a boat,
but you've seen

those rowing boats with crews
in them and all?

Competitive rowing?

- Sure.
- Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

How do you have a rowing club
without a boathouse?

So they need a boathouse.

- Okay.
- -It's what they're looking for.

Waco has this beautiful river

and it's really
underutilized.

It's just starting
to get used again.

But you see, other crews come

from around the country
to Waco for spring training.

Uh, I heard
that the Chinese

national rowing team
was in Waco this past summer.

They went right through here.

That's so cool.

And they come from around
the world to use it,

and it's right
on our backyard.

And they'll...

- And we don't use it.
- Yes.

Yeah. I mean,
that's gonna change.

We got to change that.

But there's got to be a place
to change it from,

and that's what
they're looking for,

they're looking for a site.

And I think this site here
might really be it.

Have a dock down here,
it just flattens out nicely,

nice, easy grade here.

What we'd do in here
is building a boathouse,

timber frame.

I mean, essentially,

you're building
a giant garage.

We're building
a big garage for the boats.

It's what we do.

A boat garage.

Boat...
Well, with a lot of feeling.

Yup.

So, you're gonna
build a barn up here,

timber frame.

Well,
the longest boat probably

in there will be 43 feet.

Okay.

I was thinking of
a particular barn in New York.

About 26 by 45.

- Yeah.
- Perfect size.

Really looking to build
something Victorian Period.

Mmm-hmm.

That was kind of the heyday
of rowing in America,

where all these clubs,
they'd be one ride

after another
at a certain point,

they were called
a boathouse row,

like, still exists
in Philadelphia.

Okay.

But they were very Victorian.

What I mean is that

it was all that ornate,
gingerbread...

- Yes.
- ...and all
the different colors...

- Yes. Yeah.
- ...and everything,

And also at a time
when industrial-y things

like chemistry was coming up,
and coming up

with different colors like
they've never seen before.

So suddenly, colors
that were really...

Couldn't be made in paints
even were now available,

and everybody went wild.

I'm kind of hoping we can
recreate something like that.

Do you row?

In college, I rowed,
Yeah.

- Did you row?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was America's
first collegiate sport

in the 1840s and 50's.

It grew out of ferries.

Someone on the other side
of the river puts out a flag,

saying, I wanna come with
one person across the river,

they don't run the big ferry
for that.

Uh-huh.

And the rivermen, like,
on the...

On the tents in England...

Yeah.

...you know,
they would race

to see who could the...

...get the fee
from that person.

The first guy there
picked him up

and took him across
the tents

Yeah.

What a fun, fun project.

- It is, yeah.
- Really and truly.

You know,
once in a lifetime, you know,

I've thought for years
about building one,

- and here it is.
- Yeah.

And now you're doing it.

Yeah.
Now they need one.

The barn Kevin has
in mind is in a small town

in upstate New York
named Carlisle.

A farming community
originally settled

way back in 1760.

Kevin's brought crew chief
Steve Swift

along to lead the process
of carefully dismantling

his barn to be brought back
to Waco.

Wow.

Nice mess?

Well, buried
in there is something

probably great, but I can see
centuries and centuries

of encrusting this place.

I mean,
can you visualize

in your mind's eye
the boathouse?

Look real hard now,
come on.

The one
for the boathouse

is the one in the mix
of all those additions.

24 by 45.
Good roofs.

Good roofs
make for a good barn.

You know when
they're not joined together,

do you think
they were moved here?

That's possible.

Well, let's go see
what we got.

So this first one we come
to is just a little lean-to.

And we got
the biggest collection

of lean-tos
in the state right here.

Well, we got a lot
of stuff to take out of here.

Yeah.

We'll make
quick work of that part.

This was a little
berry farm at one time.

They must have added
this whole thing

for the cows
as dairying grew.

Looks like they quit
about 20 years ago or so.

And now it's time to take it
down for a new life.

Buried in here is
the original hand hewn barn

that we wanna get down to.

Well, let's go read
the beams,

let's read the story
of this thing.

This is the original wall
of the back barn.

Nice sized tie beam up there.

Original corner post.

Hand hewn.

We're in the corner,
24 feet that way,

so it's a long,
narrow building,

and hopefully,
45 feet this way.

Everything's coated
like every good dairy barn

from early on,
with a whole lot of lime wash,

not paint, but lime wash
that will wash off.

The building's taller
than what we need,

so what we'll do
is we'll lower it.

You see it here?

The post is on stone?

We'll take all that out.

We don't need
this kind of height.

This floor above us
is gonna go,

and ultimately,

all the partitions
go through here.

It's a big space,
it's gonna show itself

in the next few days
as you tear everything out.

It's gonna be fantastic
when it's done,

but, you know,
I know it's a little hard

to imagine the space.

And here we are,
the other end of the barn.

We're now
on what was the outside

of this barn originally.

Before this whole modern
1980 barn was added.

We're looking at the gable end
of the barn.

It looks like it was resided
at some time.

Right.

This is the other
corner of the barn.

So there we have it.

This is what it's gonna look
like in the front,

- pretty wide.
- Yeah.

There's just so much
we can see down here.

We need a bigger view.

Something tells me
we head upstairs.

Here it is.

Oh, wow.

A little different
up here, Steve.

Here you go.

Nice hand-hewn rafters.

Yup.
There's that hay track.

You know,
this is a real original.

It's an early wooden one,
later on, they were all steel.

Not the kind of stuff
you see anymore.

What's this massive
thing here?

These are green vents.

They blow the green
up here and then they...

Fed in right down
in the milking room.

OSB and hand-hewn hemlock,
200 years of innovation.

Sixteen sets
of rafters.

Hand-hewn.

But look at the trunnel
sticking out up there,

look how long they are.

But you know
what's really fabulous?

Look at this.
This is a 45-foot beam here.

Wonderful.

We have these tie beams,
we have another set

painted white below us.

So we've got a lot of beams.

Right.

We got lot of extra beams
to work with in here

and do what we want with.

So you can picture it,
long boats

on racks on either side
in here,

the middle is open,

and we can fit
a four-man in here,

singles in here,
you can hang them

from the roof.

Imagine that real sleek,
varnished wood up

against this hand-hewn stuff?

I mean, you can see why
they didn't throw them out,

I mean, they moved them.

We're gonna see this building
opened up

how it was in the 1800s.