WATAUGA PRESERVATION - Key Persons

Charlie Norman named his business to honor both his hometown and his love of reclaimed materials. The city of Watauga is named both for the Watauga River running out of the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina into Tennessee and the Watauga Association, the first semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River in what is now present day Elizabethton, Tennessee. Preservation is re-using old stone and wood building materials to rebuild the past into the future. Charlie Norman was born into a Northeast Tennessee family dominated by construction trades - two great grandfathers, one grandfather, and his father were masons; the other grandfather and two uncles operated heavy equipment and other relatives were electricians, plasterers, carpenters and even a general contractor. As a young man, Charlie worked construction jobs and learned every facet of building trades. A graduate of Happy Valley High School and Emory and Henry College, Charlie began leading construction crews immediately after college and founded his own business in 2003. Watauga Preservation began as a reclaimed materials business where Charlie sourced 100-200+ year old materials from old log cabins, houses, and timber frame barns and re-purposed them for finishes in new construction. Watauga Preservation expanded this base into timber frame relocation, rustic pavilion construction, home remodels, and finally into residential general contracting. Charlie lives in Johnson City and Carter County, Tennessee with his family that includes a pretty Harley riding wife, three sons, one step-son and one foster son.