Huge Architectural Salvage Haul at Circa Antiques
We have spent much of the past year scouring the local sources of architectural salvage and we’ve never seen a one-off haul like this. Circa Antiques on Atlantic Avenue has taken possesion of the entire inside of a historically perfect brownstone! They’ve got everything from staircases to paneling to fireplaces to bathroom fixtures. Truly mind-boggling…
We have spent much of the past year scouring the local sources of architectural salvage and we’ve never seen a one-off haul like this. Circa Antiques on Atlantic Avenue has taken possesion of the entire inside of a historically perfect brownstone! They’ve got everything from staircases to paneling to fireplaces to bathroom fixtures. Truly mind-boggling and certainly raises our curiosity about why a house like this is being gutted. A new modernist-leaning owner? A developer putting in slick new condos? Wish we knew.
Architectural Salvage [Circa Antiques]
Why can’t the girls live with the orginal moldings details in place? Is beautiful architecture just for the well-off and grown-up? I grew up in France, and as a child loved having molding on the ceiling to look at and fireplace mantels to put dolls on. Why can’t a girls’ residence keep the romance of a more gracious time?
The non-profit probably does not have 1 million plus to buy another shell, then spend another couple 100,000s to renovate. Perhaps they should have a fundraiser…”Please give us a 1 million dollars, so we don’t have to gut our place.”
I gotta say, I see brownstoner with exactly that much original detail in Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights all the time.
And if this place is for “girls in trouble”? I’m for ya. Hell, I was ya!
If they are combining two bldgs for one organization, I can think of a lot of reasons for ripping this stuff out and reworking the space for a particular need (more hot water, less non-working fireplaces).
It’s rare to see a brownstone with that much original detail in its original context. To see all that ripped out and replaced with cheap modern crap is a real shame. If the non-profit wanted/needed new construction, why not a shell or some other lesser property in need of rehab? Why destroy something that will never be built again?
Also, what would you remove from the dining room? What is preventing you from putting in a bed?
I think it is workh saving as much as possible because they simply don’t make this stuff anymore and the resale value for intact properties, especially restored ones, is almost always higher than a gutted place. Before you pull out original features in a dining room, try to consider what other alternatives there may be for things like closets in the room. If it is a child, maybe a large wardrobe would work…
Anonymous @ 10:17: Yes. You save everything. It is sacred and remember you will go to hell if you disturb anything!
Ha ha ha. Don’t you think sometimes people go a little far with the edict that NOTHING SHOULD CHANGE. I personally love antiques and old, unique things and am not advocating for ripping everything out. But aren’t some of the attitudes on here like proselytizing? “Brownstones are my religion and should be yours too”?
I love girls more than bathroom fixtures (and I LOVE bathroom fixtures), so I’ll side with the non-profiters here and salute them for getting a salvage guy in there.
About the salvage guy tho: Of course they want to sell it in one lot (so much easier for them), but what are the odds? And how much do they want? I was thinking of going to look when I saw it posted earlier on this site, but .. sheesh… if I have to beg to be taken to a storage space to just look…
As much as I love orig. details I think there are sometimes valid reasons for getting rid of them. We are going to renovate a house and have to figure out how to deal with the details in an upstairs dining room that we want to turn in to a kids room. Do you keep all the details intact even if there aren’t any room for beds or closets in a room?