Our Story

Family business 70 years in the making

In the 1950s, Allen “Shorty” Kinnison, started a simple woodworking business named Shorty’s Craft Shop” in Portsmouth, VA. From a humble start as a cabinetmaker, Allen owned and operated that business well into his 90s. Charles Kinnison, a shop teacher, and Nate Kinnison, Allen’s grandson, grew up in that shop in Portsmouth, VA learning and working through the years carving, designing, repairing, and creating.

“Shorty’s” built custom furniture and rebuilt high-end antiques needing restoration and repair. Custom wood carving and wood turning were part of every day, and traditional woodworking kept the lights on and the family safe and warm. Growing up during the Great Depression, Allen believed in minimal waste, and many of the unique characteristics of the wood, like knots, scars, & mill marks would make their way into the custom furniture and goods he made at Shorty’s Craft Shop. Stockpiles of lumber were traded, acquired, and milled on site. Industrial furniture and wooden waste from the shipyard and streets were regularly saved and stockpiled. Metal fabrication and blacksmithing became part of the shop and welding and forging parts for furniture and objects became a common

“I remember pieces of lumber that we milled as a family, chopping the remainder of the lumber and trees for firewood in the shop stove. I was splitting logs and milling from the time I could swing a hammer; the scrap bin — full of walnut and cherry pieces — was mine to use freely. I would carry small rectangular pieces of the hardwoods and cedar in my pockets just because I liked the way they felt and smelled.” - Nate Kinnison

In 2017, Hanover Grain was born on Hanover Avenue in Norfolk VA. Charles passed in July 2017 from pancreatic cancer and Allen just a year prior to that. The family business had taken a backseat to age & time. Equipment had scattered in transition between three shops and the lumber stock was sitting dormant. Nate, father of six, had moved many of the machines into the shop at Hanover. In 2019, the final transition closed the second shop in Suffolk. To this day, the original “Shorty's Craft Shop” in Portsmouth is lumber storage for Hanover Grain and is undergoing repair and renovation to accommodate storage for curation and selection of lumber. Hanover Grain, LLC also owns Virginia Mantle, and the shop renovations are underway to curate reclaimed timber beams for use in mantles and industrial/commercial furniture.

Many of the machines and tools at Hanover Grain belonged to the original “Shorty’s,” and each one has a story, a family history. The private stock of hardwoods is well maintained and in regular flux with the curation of new hardwoods from around the world.

Shorty wouldn't have it any other way.