Hannah Robinson launches her collection made from a fallen live oak from Drayton Hall this month
Self-taught woodworker Hannah Robinson with one of the tables she crafted from a live oak salvaged from Drayton Hall.
When Hannah Robinson visited Ladson Wood Recycling in 2020 with her two young sons, her heart sank as she looked at the mounds of tree trunks, limbs, and branches that had been thrown into a heap and left to rot or be mulched. “Trees are our souls. We are all interconnected and when we destroy one part of the planet, we destroy ourselves,” she says.
That year, after spending several years buying and selling houses as well as building tiny houses, the self-taught artisan set up shop in an old Navy warehouse in North Charleston and launched her woodworking business, Charleston Live Edge. The Kentucky native crafts tables, counters, desks, mantels, and headboards on commission with prices starting at $5,000. She shares the ups and downs along the way on her Instagram feed, @your_lady_carpenter.
One of Robinson's live-edge maps.
In 2022, she received a call from Drayton Hall asking if she had the capability to salvage a grand live oak that had fallen on the property during Hurricane Ian. “Drayton Hall is committed to telling our complete story with accuracy and connecting our supporters with history,” explains CEO Carter Hudgins. “The several hundred-year-old tree is part of that history and was an artifact that we did not want to see turned into firewood or mulch. What better way to rehabilitate it than to ask for help from a talented craftsman like Hannah?”
When Robinson arrived at the site, she recognized the historic tree as one she had developed a fondness for a decade earlier while volunteering as a tour guide at the plantation. Removing its 18,000-pound trunk from the property required building a road and a bridge that could carry such a heavy weight across a 15-foot ditch. After completing this step, Robinson hired a crew to bring in cranes to load the trunk onto a flatbed trailer and transport it to a sawmill in Laurens. There, the wood was slabbed into pieces and dried in a kiln before being delivered to her workshop that sits adjacent to her by-appointment-only showroom off Ashley Phosphate Road.
The live oak was removed from the plantation after it fell during Hurricane Ian.
One of Robinson’s tables greets visitors in Drayton Hall’s Orientation Hall, and there’s a launch party for her 35-piece Legacy furniture collection at a private home this month. “This project was bigger than me, and it reignited my faith in myself,” she says.
Robinson has also started teaching classes at her workshop. “I want to encourage others to learn the trades and teach how to save more trees as a community.”
By the Numbers
■ 175: Trees saved from mulching
■ 35: Slabs of oak from the fallen tree at Drayton Hall
■ 300: Pieces of furniture and art commissioned and sold
