Our Someone 2 Know this week is a professional mason.
The ancient art of stone-masonry goes back more than 12,000 years. Since then - rocks, bricks and stone have been used to build everything from caves to cathedrals.
In the modern day and here in northern Nevada, the stonework installed by Paul Holloway and his company, Northeast Masonry can be seen just about everywhere in our region (schools, shopping centers, commercial facilities, water treatment plants, and more) .
One of Holloway’s most recent creations – an immense stone arch - was built with a very special person in mind. It’s so grand and awe-inspiring, it’s best appreciated in person. So, we meet up with Paul in Mound House to see it for ourselves.
"It's probably 700 thousand pounds of stone,” Holloway explains pointing to the arch.
700 thousand pounds of stone, very carefully chosen;
“I've been collecting stone from a quarry for three years, of the size that I needed”
Paul Holloway needed all that stone because 15 years ago he promised his little girl, Claire, that he would build her an arch. She started asking when she was 5 years old.
"She said can you build an arch, (she was) tiny - in the seat of the truck. I'm like - what? You know it'd have to be big enough for concrete truck to go under it. I mean -you're crazy"
Claire was insistent - and now, in the year 2020, the completed arch looms large in a rural area of Mound House, Nevada - with plenty of space for anything to pass under it.
There is no mortar, no concrete - just gravity;
"Between the two skew-backs is over 46 thousand pounds of stone, that fit- and, gravity kinda keeps it all rolling,” Paul points out.
And in a nod to the rich history of masonry and the cathedrals of Europe, Holloway branded the structure...
"Notre Dame de Misericorde, Our Lady of Forgiveness"
But really, it's known as 'Claire's Arch' - and ironically Claire herself has not seen the completed version in person, as she recently enlisted in the Army National Guard
"She just finished basic training and now she's in AIT in Georgia"
And although he built it for his daughter, Paul gives all the credit to his staff ;
"The men are what built that arch, I didn't build that arch"
Holloway says from designing the mock-up that sits in front of the office at Northeast Masonry, to the completed creation, it took tremendous team work;
"A bunch of talented, hardworking folks - very skilled craftsmen"
Now in his early 60's Paul says he'd like to further train his men in the physics and chemistry vital to the honored trade of masonry;
"That's all I'm around for now. When that is complete, I'm right as rain"
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Paul was too humble to really admit it, but his staff confirmed that one of the big reasons the arch got completed when it did - was to keep his men working during the pandemic shutdowns.
To learn more about Northeast Masonry, check out the link below
