Carpenter Haakon Loe

Come and experience the atmosphere of a bygone era! Our guides will tell you about his life, the tools and products he made, and show you the carpentry workshop. From 195, – pr. person

Sawdust. Pine, spruce, and oak. Chisel, hammer, and planer. Varnish and paint, paint, and tincture. So much you may have never seen before, or maybe you have used a lot of it or seen it with grandpa. Everything comes from a time when the craft was in the driver’s seat. The pictures of old buildings and people; everything testifies to a time that is so foreign to us today. Then manual work was a matter of course. How did he manage to elicit these shapes from a single wooden plank? Magic?

Not far from Meyergården hotel, is the old carpentry workshop of Haakon Loe. A small, simple house, almost up on the hilltop. As you enter the ground floor, where he made furniture in the carpentry workshop in Kaialunden for a lifetime. When you enter the first room, which was where he received his customers, there are several machines and examples of things he produced during his working life. In the room in the back, you enter the very heart of the company, where he produced and assembled furniture, often with intricate patterns and inlays. On the walls still hangs the tool he used, and the entire carpentry workshop is preserved as he left it at his death, with all the tools, templates, and surface treatment as he left it. Yes, it’s almost like he’s coming through the door at any moment!

Haakon Loe came to Rana at a young age, not so long after the turn of the century. He soon got a job at Meyergården Hotel, which was then run by Karen Amalie Johanne Meyer, popularly called Kaja. His job was to be a handyman, but Kaja Meyer soon saw that the young man had a gift for fine carpentry. She insisted that he be apprenticed as a cabinetmaker, and he spent his apprenticeship at Meyergården, where he also eventually took the certificate. He is known for having made a whole lot of furniture that stands around the city, among other things there are wedding chairs in Mo church, and he made almost all the furniture that is in the old wing at Meyergården hotel.

Come and experience the atmosphere of a gone era!

Our guides will tell you about his life, the tools, and products he made, and show you the carpentry workshop. Can be ordered at any time. Price: 185, – pr. person