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By SEAN KILPATRICK
Rappahannock Neva Contributinc Writer
Sperryville stonemason Ken Shankle spent a good part of last year on a a scaffold high up on Jenkins’ Mountain setting stone for an unusual house.
The house, which overlooks the entrance to Gid Brown Hollow, is supported by structural stone pillars more than 30 feet tall. Stone walls flank the entrance ways and frame the garage. More than 300 tons of stone were used. The house seems to rise out of the ground rather than rest upon it.
The illusion is enhanced by the lack of visible mortar within the rock walls and pillars. Architect Robert Wilson Mobley, AIA, of Great Falls admits the specifications were rigorous. “We didn’t want to see any mortar at all,” he said, t
“We have done a lot of custom houses and I have used a lot of stone, but Ken is the best [stone mason] I have come across in 22 years as an architect,” said Mr. Mobley.
His fellow architects agreed with him and presented Mr. Shankle an award for exceptional craftsmanship from the Northern Virginia chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) this past December.
“Much of Ken’s work had to be done on a scafold and that makes a stonemason’s job doubly difficult,” Mr. Mobley added. “A stonemason needs to step back from his work to make sure that the various rock sizes are well distributed. That’s hard to do on a scaffold,” he explained.
The first problem Mr. Shankle had was getting the stone to the building site. Most of it came from West Virginia and was brought in on trucks. The driveway to the house site is more than two miles long and sections are extremely steep with grades of 30 percent.
General contractor Henry
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