Owners of older homes often spend months or years looking for woodwork, tiles or other materials to match the original details in their homes.
Fortunately, architectural salvage companies can make this search much easier while also offering a mesmerizing selection of both historic building components and antiques-- which is perfect when one family member wants to find the perfect drawer handle and the other wants an Art Nouveau figurine.
Finding Period House Parts in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky, has two sizeable architectural salvage companies in the downtown. While each offers extensive selections in major house parts and smaller-sized antiques, Architectural Salvage and Joe Ley Antiques each offer a different but equally rewarding feel for buyers.
Regular Additions to Antique, Salvage Inventory
Due to the nature of obtaining the items from buildings that were demolished or remodeled, architectural salvage places will routinely receive new items while other unique finds are sold.
Architectural Salvage
Located in a group of large buildings, Architectural Salvage's 24,000 sq. ft. offers a maze winding through a small dusty interior to stacked exterior spaces and winds through a ca. 19th century home with gleaming woodwork and gorgeous furniture placed on oriental rugs.
Exit signs are helpfully placed to give shoppers an idea of the layout, and numerous rooms highlight treasures from several periods of American interior design.
Beginning the Adventure
In the first section, old sinks including the seafoam green versions highly sought after by certain restorers and small chandeliers shape the room. Once leaving the low-ceilinged space through a nearly unnoticeable door, the sense of wonder begins.
Rooms Burst with Unexpected Treasures
Enormous chandeliers, tile fireplace surrounds and room-sized bars occupy several rooms in addition to furniture of various periods and sizes. Interestingly, there were also several medallion sets commemorating Napoleon, Josephine and Marie Therese, highlighting Louisville's fondness for French history.
Exterior Courtyard Offers Wide Selection
The good-sized courtyard contains the traditional fountains, bathroom elements, and whimsical statues plus terra cotta fragments from dismantled commercial facades. Many people can repurpose the terra cotta work and Italianate corbels for garden and sculptural elements.
Joe Ley Antiques
Walking into the vast downtown building adorned by two gigantic toy soldiers is like entering a glittering, colorful world of high ceilings with almost every inch of wall and window space covered with detailed paintings and exuberant stained glass.
Antique Furniture, Period Stained Glass and Collectible Antiques
The top two floors and much of the bottom floor contain thousands of armoires, desks, beds, and small antique pieces from the Victorian period to French revival to 1960s stream-lined style. Buyers can find marble statues, enormous chandeliers, and an array of sparkling crystal near Victorian teacups.
House Elements from Bathrooms to Telephone Boxes
The cavernous basement offers room after room of wooden doors, bathroom and fireplace tiles, hinges, and everything else needed in a functional historic home. Homeowners can restore or update a fireplace with salvaged wooden mantels in curvy, embellished Victorian styles or with the straighter lines highlighting Arts and Crafts-era quarter-sawn oak mantels.
For homes without enough privacy, buyers can contemplate purchasing period telephone booths from the time when phones were connected to the wall. Clawfoot tubs and 1920s sinks are common finds as are antique doorknobs.
Antique Toy Room
As a bonus, there is a room-sized display of antique toys that are not for sale, but just to amaze.
Antique Statues and Urns
The outdoor courtyard and a second, larger outdoor area house numerous metal statues and fountains that once graced Louisville's homes and businesses.
Locations of Louisville Architectural Salvage Companies
- Architectural Salvage can be found at 614-618 E. Broadway Road in Louisville, Kentucky. Hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.
- Joe Ley Antiques is located at 615 E. Market Road in Louisville, Kentucky. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.
Bonnye Good - Bonnye Busbice Good received an Editor's Choice award for her article on Your Historic Home's Interior Design Secrets and has also written ...
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