George Pinner – Mount Hood’s Master Stonemason

George Washington Pinner

Many of the old cabins scattered through the forests around Mount Hood share a distinctive feature: massive stone fireplaces built from carefully shaped native rock. These fireplaces were the work of George Washington Pinner, a skilled stonemason who made his home at Faubion, between Zigzag and Rhododendron.

Pinner’s stonework has survived for generations, but much less has been known about the man who built it.

George Pinner’s Early Years

George Pinner was born August 9, 1869, in Henderson County, North Carolina, the son of William Augustis Pinner and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Minerva Hutchinson.

On September 2, 1891, he married Alice Lee Hughes in Buncombe County, North Carolina. George and Alice had three daughters, Minnie Lee, Julia, and Martha Cordelia, who was also known as Delia. Julia died while still young.

By the early 1900s, the family was living around Asheville, where George was already an experienced stonemason. The 1908 Asheville city directory lists “Geo W Pinner” as a stone contractor in West Asheville and names Alice with him. Other members of the Pinner family were also listed as stonemasons, suggesting that George may have learned the trade within his family.

During these years, George and Alice also owned several pieces of property around West Asheville. Newspaper notices show George acquiring land there as early as 1903.

According to accounts passed down locally, Pinner’s masonry work once took him to Washington, D.C., where he was said to have worked on stone curbing at the White House. Documentation confirming that story has not yet been found.

George Pinner Comes West

By 1920, Pinner had traveled across the country and was living near Puyallup, Washington, with his daughter Martha. The census listed him as a farmer and recorded him as married, although Alice was not living in the household.

Alice died in Augusta, Georgia, on August 21, 1925. Her death certificate still identified George Washington Pinner as her husband.

Not long after, George came to Oregon. His arrival was approximately 1925. By 1930, census records show that he was living in “Brightwood Township” and was listed as a widower.

Pinner had settled at Faubion, a small community along the Mount Hood Loop Highway between Zigzag and Rhododendron. It was from there that his masonry skills became part of the architectural character of the Mount Hood area.

A Log Cabin Stonemason

Pinner built stone fireplaces for homes and cabins throughout the Mount Hood corridor, leaving examples of his work scattered throughout the mountain communities. He is especially associated with the rustic log cabins constructed by Henry Steiner and the Steiner family.

Pinner’s fireplaces had a recognizable style. Rather than simply setting rounded river rock into mortar, he split and shaped the stones to fit together. Many featured an arched opening with a prominent keystone. He also finished the mortar with distinctive rounded or convex joints.

Combined with the heavy logs used by the Steiners, Pinner’s stonework helped create the rustic architectural style that became closely associated with early Mount Hood cabins.

Perhaps the most personal example of his craft was his own home at Faubion. Pinner constructed the small stone house using the same skills he employed throughout the mountain community. The house still stands along Faubion Loop Road today.

Trouble at Rhododendron

Pinner’s years at Mount Hood weren’t entirely uneventful. In June 1932, he was arrested following an altercation with A. H. Mehl of the Cascade Club near Rhododendron. Mehl suffered knife wounds during a dispute reportedly involving money Pinner believed he was owed.

Later accounts indicate that members of the mountain community came to Pinner’s defense when the case went to court. Details of the proceedings have been difficult to verify, but Pinner remained in the area and continued his life and work there for decades afterward.

Still Working With Stone

One story passed down by the family of Alvin Harvey “Al” Smith provides a glimpse of Pinner later in life.

When Smith was building a cabin at Zigzag in the late 1940s, he wanted one of Pinner’s fireplaces. Pinner was nearly 80 and considered himself retired, but Smith eventually persuaded him to take the job. Smith and his friends gathered the rock and drove Pinner to the cabin each day.

According to Smith’s son Ron, George enjoyed working with the younger men so much that when the fireplace was finished, he charged Smith only $150, half of his usual $300 price. Pinner told them that working with them had made him feel young again. The two men remained friends afterward.

Pinner apparently never completely lost his desire to work with stone. In 1952, the Sandy Post mentioned the elderly stonemason recovering from a severe case of influenza. Despite still being weak from his illness, he had been seen at Zigzag making a rock flower bed. He was 82 years old.

The following year, the newspaper referred to him simply as “George Pinner of Faubion” while reporting that deer had eaten and trampled his strawberries and lettuce.

George Washington Pinner died July 9, 1957, at the age of 87. His death certificate listed his occupation simply as “stone mason” in the building industry.

More than half a century after his death, Pinner’s work remains scattered throughout the Mount Hood corridor. His fireplaces still stand in old cabins, and the stone house he built for himself remains at Faubion.

They are fitting reminders of a man who spent much of his life shaping stone by hand.

Sources

• U.S. Census records, 1870–1950
• Asheville City Directory, 1908
• Buncombe County, North Carolina, marriage and property records
• The Asheville Times, property and trustee notices, 1909, 1910 and 1914
• Alice Lee Hughes Pinner death certificate, 1925
• Statesman Journal, June 10, 1932
• Sandy Post, May 1, 1952
• Sandy Post, October 1, 1953
• George Washington Pinner death certificate, 1957
• Ron Smith, family recollections of Alvin Harvey Smith and George Pinner