After a half-century of turning raw wood into pieces of film and television history, Thomas Lupo is preparing to close his family’s third-generation business, which has been operating for over double that time.
American Wood Column Corp., located on Grand Street, will soon shut its doors, marking the end of a decades-long legacy of hand-carved craftsmanship.
Lupo, 73, has spent 50 years in the shop, taking over a trade passed down from his grandfather to his father.
The decision to close comes with a heavy heart for the lifelong woodworker, who noted that while nobody in the family wanted the business to die, the reality of the closure is very final.
The surrounding neighborhood has transformed dramatically over the years, leaving the vintage workshop—with its exposed brick walls, towering wooden pillars, and industrial skylights—as a time capsule of a bygone manufacturing era.
A Quiet Force in Pop Culture
While the shop’s name highlights its architectural wood columns, its unseen footprint on entertainment is vast. Lupo’s workshop has been a quiet force behind recognizable set pieces for decades. When Saturday Night Live started 50 years ago, Lupo’s team built their sets, including the iconic Grand Central-style clock that still appears at the front of the stage.
The shop’s early Hollywood contributions included crafting the Corleone family grave for The Godfather.
They also built set pieces for the musical film The Greatest Showman and traditional courtroom interiors for Law & Order.
Their craftsmanship extends directly into prominent city institutions, including the New York State seal mounted behind judges in local courthouses, and the elaborate wooden details that once framed the Lord & Taylor Christmas windows on Fifth Avenue.
Preserving a Fading Trade
Inside the Brooklyn workshop, long shelves stretching to the ceiling are packed with approximately 9,000 reverse-carved wooden molds.
These intricate templates, which the shop’s craftsmen still utilize by hand, allow them to produce highly detailed, repetitive architectural elements. The physical survival of these unique tools contrasts sharply with the broader decline of the local woodworking industry.
According to Lupo, the field used to be highly common, but today, few people enter the trades or come knocking on his door looking for a job as a woodworker. The physical demands and the highly specialized skills required have made the traditional profession a rarity in the modern job market.
Reflecting on his 50-year career, Lupo acknowledges that the intensive labor of running the shop was never driven by financial gain. The decades spent turning wood on the lathe and managing the sprawling collection of molds were simply fueled by a lasting love for the work.