The Carpenter Who Refused to Leave Detroit
When his neighbourhood in Detroit's east side was written off by every developer and city planner, Marcus Webb opened a woodworking workshop in a building he bought for $800. He has since trained 340 people and turned down an offer to franchise.
The building on Mack Avenue cost Marcus Webb $800 at a city auction in 2014. It had no roof on the back third. The windows were plywood. Three people had told him it was not worth saving. He bought it anyway because it had the highest ceilings he had ever seen in a building that cheap, and because it was two blocks from the house he grew up in.
"People kept telling me Detroit was coming back," he says, running a hand along a workbench he built from salvaged gymnasium flooring. "I didn't care about Detroit coming back. I cared about this block. This block didn't need to come back. It needed someone to stay."
Marcus learned carpentry from his grandfather, who had worked the line at a furniture factory that closed in 1987. He spent fifteen years doing residential renovation work across the city before deciding he wanted to build something that stayed put.
The workshop model
Webb Woodworks operates on a dual model: a production shop that makes custom furniture sold mainly to buyers in Chicago and New York, and a community workshop that runs paid classes and a free apprenticeship track for residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Of the 340 people trained since 2015, 61 are now working in skilled trades. Twelve have started their own businesses.
"Someone offered me money to franchise this two years ago," he says. "Open ten more locations, branded, systematised. I told him no." He pauses, picks up a chisel, examines the edge. "Some things don't scale. That's not a flaw. That's the whole point."
