SOPHISTICATED SALVAGE

It’s trendy to repurpose five-panel doors as headboards, and to up-cycle vintage hard-shell suitcases into dog beds. For restorers, the best use of architectural salvage is to replace missing architectural details that should never have been lost in the f

I did not participate in the Dumpsterdiving days of the 1970s, but over the years I’ve picked up my share of architectural treasures from salvage dealers, antiques shops, eBay, mega-flea markets, and even a curb or two. All of these sources remain great places to search for items that help restore character to a historic house. Since I bought my first one— a 1942 Cape Cod in North Carolina, where the first bit of salvage was a bottom-of-the-line Norge dishwasher picked up by my father— the salvage world has grown, changed, and matured in astonishing ways.

Walk into a long-time architectural salvage shop and you will find hardware, lighting, structural elements such as doors and newel posts, and furniture neatly arranged in curated galleries that border on posh. Prefer to do your shopping online? Elements are presented by category, along with mini-catalogs of recent

additions. That’s where I saw a ca. 1880 Baroque Revival mahogany staircase and matching newel post in a carefully removed single piece at Eron Johnson Antiques, an architectural antiques dealer who specializes in such high-end finds. On the lower end, if only original hardware will do for a transom restoration, you can find those bits and pieces for a song on eBay.

As you might imagine, the internet has brought us more ways than ever to find architectural salvage—with sources from all over the world as well as your own neighborhood. It’s possible to locate half a dozen sets of ca. 1915 passage-door hardware, or the perfect Magic Chef kitchen range from the 1940s, or a true gaslight chandelier, all by using your laptop or smart phone. That said, it’s tougher to find certain authentic fittings and materials, especially for houses built before 1900. (That magnificent Baroque Revival staircase came from Buenos Aires.) Even when you do find that elusive gaslight chandelier, it’s likely to cost thousands of dollars rather than hundreds, and you’ll be competing against high-end collectors, interior decorators, architects, and prop masters as well as fellow restorers. In a word, salvage has become . . . sophisticated.

An increasingly discerning market for architectural antiques means there’s a shrinking supply of certain styles. A good number of salvage dealers now replicate hard-to-find items, including Vintage Hardware & Lighting in Port Townsend, Washington, and Rejuvenation in Portland, Oregon. Patterned on actual artifacts, the reproductions tend to be accurate representations. [ cont. on page 44]