Wawona Closeup

The Wawona was a nineteenth century wooden sailing ship, a three-masted schooner. Built in 1897, it was based in Lake Union and was mainly employed hauling lumber around the sound and up and down the west coast. Eventually, it was found to be too big and too far gone to save. When the MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) moved into the Naval Reserve Building in South Lake Union Park an artwork was commissioned to be made from the salvaged old growth timbers that had made up its hull. John Grade is the artist that created Wawona the artwork, which stands sixty feet tall and weighs five and a half tons. Extending through both ceiling and floor of the armory, it looks like a giant hollowed out pier. The originally four-inch thick slabs of hull have been CNC machined away to create barnacles. It grows on you like a barnacle.