If you’ve lived in an old house in Lawrence, you’re probably familiar with the annoying cracks in plaster and lath walls caused by constantly expanding and contracting soil.

If you’re lucky, you know Ben Graham.

He repairs old surfaces in a historically correct way. It’s just one of the many skills he possesses to breathe life into myriad surfaces. Some of his work can be observed at Liberty Hall, Free State Brewery, La Prima Tazza, Sunflower Bike Shop, Merchants Pub & Plate and residential locales.

Graham’s skills help accentuate spaces we enjoy.

A Big Bang at Liberty Hall

Graham has worked about every facet of the trowel trades, starting in the early 1970s in Iowa and working his way throughout the country before landing in Lawrence. He’s poured concrete in warehouses and constructed highways, grain elevators and many high-end homes.

Since 1985, Lawrence has benefited from Graham’s generous spirit and broad skillset, particularly as a plasterer. 

The plaster repair Graham offers is unique because it is historically correct.

“When I go into these older houses where they have run new wires or plumbing, channels are created in the walls, and I repair them,” he said. “With drywall the depths and thickness are not the same. Drywall is not keyed in with the broken plaster around it, so I fill the recesses and then feather it in and smooth it out.”

Graham also uses a specialized decorative plastering method called Venetian or encaustic plastering, where the surface is burnished with a trowel. The result is highly reflective and smooth to the touch, and can also have color mixed in.

You can observe this type of finish at Liberty Hall in the hallway, on the stairs and at the entrance to the little theater.

Around 1987, Graham met Dave Millstein, who had recently purchased Liberty Hall with Charlie and Tensie Oldfather. The building needed extensive plaster repair due to age, neglect and years of water intrusion. 

“I bet we put 20 tons of plaster in Liberty Hall over the years,” Graham said, shaking his head. “I plastered just about everything in Liberty Hall: walls, ceilings, lots of masonry work in the basement.” 

Graham was also an integral part of the team Millstein employed to manifest his otherworldly vision for the little theater above La Prima Tazza. The team included John Lee, Kevin Armstrong and John Stanley.

Graham plastered the hallway, bathrooms, stairs, as well as the entrance into and everything inside the theater.

“Millstein did not like straight lines,” Graham reflected.

As he tells the story, the shape of the ceiling in the little theater represents Millstein’s vision of the Eye of Osiris, which ancient Egyptians considered a symbol for afterlife and protection against evil. Fiber optics run through surgical tubing in the ceiling to represent the exact composition of stars in the night sky on the spring equinox.

Millstein also had a specific request for the little theater’s entrance.

“Dave told me he wanted the entrance to be the Big Bang,” Graham said. 

Next time you enter the small theater, pause and take it in. I think Graham accomplished the task in an artful and compelling manner.

Graham also worked with Stanley on Free State Brewery. Stanley made the molds, and Graham poured and finished concrete throughout the building.

“The decks on the second floor and the first floor, I poured and finished,” he said. “The concrete in the beer hall, the stone down there, I mortared and plastered most of that in the balconies.”

The zen of plaster and concrete

Graham’s work can be viewed as art. 

“The calling is to serve the project with skill and a mindset to create and complete a task that is satisfying to others,” he said.

He focuses on “craft,” which he said “suggests aspects of art but is first humble, practical and utilitarian, appreciated for the background of living.”

His care, intention and meditative approach — and his years of practice and skill with tools and materials — is unique. 

Graham credits Doug Hendrickson, a sculpture professor and adviser at Drake University in Iowa, who taught him to incorporate sensitivity and aesthetics into his craftsmanship.

“He taught me the intrinsic value of work and labor,” Graham said.

Following Hendrickson’s advice, Graham joined a union in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1972. He worked as an apprentice for two-and-a-half years, learning everything he could from freehand ornamental plasterers he describes as “the last of their kind, men who were ending their careers. They were from Finland, Sweden, northern Italy.”

Graham earned his journeyman designation at the union in Minneapolis.

Another mentor, Ken Erickson, taught Graham to maintain and prize his tools above all.

Erickson also instilled a meditative component into the work. Graham learned to treat materials like “a wild animal” that “will get away from you if you don’t pay attention to conditions.” He also developed an intuition about how materials will react to different environments and substrates.

“That, to me, was zen, because when you get into dealing with plaster and concrete, you only have a certain amount of time, and you are not considering anything else when you are doing that,” Graham says.

Poignantly, Graham added, “I am soulfully connected to the trowel trades.”

Music and masonry

Many townies will remember a weekly gig that Graham helped organize, which took place most Friday nights at Free State Brewery between 1995 and 2015. Graham was a regular in a rotating group of people playing jazz. 

The trowel trades not only gave Graham a lifelong vocation but also a means to pay his way through college, when he devoted himself to the saxophone. He had previously studied piano and clarinet. 

When asked why he chose the saxophone, Graham said “It’s such an expressive instrument.” 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in creative arts, music and creative writing from Sierra Nevada College in 1981. He cherishes the years in the Sierra Nevadas, and music has remained an integral component of his life. 

“The music and the masonry are so connected for me,” he said. “One allows the other to happen. When I have the opportunity to play publicly, it’s wonderful. It’s the masonry and plaster work that made all that possible.”

I had the pleasure of watching Graham play at the annual Bizarre Bazaar, then at Genovese Italian Restaurant on New Year’s Eve. Graham’s skill and passion were on full display as he performed with Bryan Hicks and Ven Bergdall.

Bergdall, a jazz pianist and music educator at Americana Music Academy and Raintree Montessori School, said Graham has a great repertoire.

“He’s very humble, not flashy,” Bergdall said. “He’s very attuned to what’s going on around him.” 

“He’s got a generosity of spirit,” Bergdall added. 

Artistry through the years

Looking back on his career in Lawrence, I asked Graham to name a few of his favorite jobs. The first one that came to mind was renovating the interior of Tellers, which is now Merchants Pub & Plate.

He also named Liberty Hall, Sunflower Outdoor and Bike Shop, and the old Woolworth’s building at 911 Massachusetts St. Some of his favorite residential projects were the Turney home at 1501 Pennsylvania St., the Piller home at 711 Indiana St. and the historic Hoyt home at 743 Indiana St. 

“I have really enjoyed working with all of my clients over the years,” he added.

Of course, his favorite creation is his daughter, Yoko Naomi Graham. She’s a freshman studying biomechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University and the apple of Graham’s eye.

“I have the love of my daughter to keep me going,” Graham said.

In recent years, Graham’s life has become richer through a special relationship with his partner, Barbara Yoder. She even teamed up with him for some cleanup and repair work at Liberty Hall a few months ago.

Our community is fortunate Graham decided to make Lawrence his home. His specialized skillset and work ethic are integral to the historic preservation of so many homes and businesses.

Although his work is often in the background of our built environment, it is my hope we take notice and appreciate that a building’s details are just as important as the events and experiences they hold.

We have Graham to thank for much beauty that surrounds us. He is part of a lineage of artisans and musicians who have practiced their craft, reaching mastery by creating art and music that have the power to unite us during these challenging times. 

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