Through Time
America’s appetite for lumber ignites industrial logging across the Gulf South. Louisiana’s old-growth forests yield heart pine and cypress of unmatched density and character. The timber milled in these decades remains the gold standard for reclaimed wood today.
Architect A. Hays Town begins developing his signature Louisiana vernacular, championing reclaimed timber as a material of integrity and permanence. He turns to one principal supplier: Pete Rumfolo, whose understanding of antique wood sets the standard for the trade.
From the gridiron to the workshop. Shawn Burks earns All-American honors at LSU before joining the Washington Redskins. After retiring from the NFL, he returns to Louisiana and acquires Antique Woods, apprenticing under Pete Rumfolo to master the trade. A new chapter begins.
A landmark lodge commission establishes Antique Woods as the premier supplier for luxury wilderness retreats. From Montana to the Swiss Alps, more than twenty elite hunting and ski lodges bear the mark of our craftsmanship.
2020 - Antique Woods
Heritage meets precision. Antique Woods invests in modern milling technology while the next generation of the Burks family steps up to the line. The mission remains unchanged: deliver reclaimed materials worthy of the finest architecture.
Our Founder
Pete Rumfolo taught me that wood tells the truth. A heart pine beam salvaged from an 1880s warehouse either has the density and the character, or it does not. No finish and no salesman can change what the material actually is. Our job is to find the best of it, mill it with precision, and put it in the hands of people who can tell the difference.
I acquired Antique Woods and apprenticed under Pete forty years ago, the man who spent his career supplying reclaimed timber to renowned architect A. Hays Town. Pete rejected more material than he accepted. His standards were not negotiable. Neither are ours.
Every board in our inventory is sourced, graded, and finished in our Louisiana shop. We do not ship a truss until every joint has been tested. That standard holds whether the client is a homeowner in Baton Rouge or an architect in New York.
My family is in the shop now. The next generation, learning the same way I did. The standard does not change.
From generations of our family for generations of yours.
OWNER AND PRESIDENT