The late Tong Thy Huang, known to the Lake Area community as Mr. Jay, came to America from Taiwan in 1976. He had no formal education. With hard work, he and his wife, Yueh Shing Chen Huang (Mrs. Jay) built a successful business, made sure their children received an education and restored a Broad Street historical home. A large, ornate library, which conformed to the style of the house, was added later.

Many people got to know Mr. Jay through visits to his Broad Street Restaurant, Peking Garden. One of those regulars, who became a family friend, is Susan Cormier.

“One of Mr. Jay’s passions soon became evident in his restaurant,” Cormier said. “He was not just a dreamer. He was a creator, an artist and a builder. Fine wood floors, magnificent walls and molding were built with his own hands.”

Cormier may have known, before his children who were away at college did, what it was that Mr. Jay stored in the large warehouse behind the restaurant: Rows and rows of strips of unfinished wood, columns and blocks for dentil molding.

“His plan was to purchase the old Colonial Inn on Broad Street,” she said. “It was a huge home and in need of much repair.”

Readers may remember the Colonial Inn as the place for great burgers and onion rings. The structure was built around 1915.

Mr. Jay recalled acquiring the house for a good price. Then came the realization of what it would cost to restore it to his standards.

“I had to spend some money,” he said, chuckling and shaking his head.

He also spent time and elbow grease.

“He would grab a quick bite after 2 p.m., when the restaurant was closed and disappear,” his daughter Nancy said. “When it was time to open again, my mother would go get him.”

In addition to storing reclaimed wood, Mr. Jay had been collecting books. The books represented his insatiable interest in just about everything. His daughter Nancy, a chemical engineer, said her father often surprised her with his knowledge of the science, finance, political and geography associated with the petrochemical industry.

When the American Press asked Mr. Jay what he would have majored in, if he was 18 and had to decide, he answered physics or maybe aeronautics.

According to the American Press obituary, Mr. Jay’s formal education ended after fifth grade. But he relentlessly pursued self-education the rest of his life, gaining high school and just short of college equivalency. He became fluent in Taiwanese, Mandarin and English, traveled, and maintained a continual quest for learning all his life.

Local woodworker Bryan Mathieu and his son, Jeramiah, were instrumental in building the library. Mathieu met Mr. Jay when Mathieu was remodeling another Broad Street historical property, Scarlet O’s, now the Governor’s Mansion.

“He loved vintage architecture and saw the beauty and the warmth of dark stained wood,” Mathieu said. “He could not stand to see wood that was once beautiful go by the wayside. If he found an old fireplace, it would become my job to shape it to what his mind’s eye would see. He would always say, ‘Oh, Mr. Bryan, beautiful, but let’s put one more piece of trim.’ Then he would go to work staining and sealing the wood.”

Some of the bookcases used in the library were original to the house. Mathieu and Mr. Jay stored them to use later. The library was years in design and some of the bookcases influenced that design.

“I had to build new book cases to match the ones that may have been as old as a 100 years,” Mathieu said. “He was very particular that the floors. They had to vertical grained pine.”

Mr. Jay stained and finished every single board in the building. To create the crown molding Mr. Jay envisioned required nine pieces of trim – stacked — to make it large enough.

“All the dentil molding my son and I put up are individual blocks of wood. Mr. Jay didn’t want fabricated.”

“The end results of what we accomplished made us very proud,” Mathieu said. “I loved to see Mr. Jay smile. He always said we were family, not just friends.”

Tong Thy “Mr. Jay” Huang was a man of many passions. He put family first. He treated friends like family. But his quest for lifelong learning and love of beautiful woodwork and architecture are a lasting legacy in his library and will be a reminder of the man for generations to come.

Mr. Jay’s formal education stopped at the fifth grade

Donna Price