THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501240494
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANN BARRY BURROWS, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Long : 206 lines
THERE'S A GROWING appetite for old things that goes way beyond an antique table here or an heirloom chair there.
It's a hunger that leads architects to design extra-thick walls and wide portals to accommodate old doors and windows and sends artists, collectors, antique dealers and homeowners digging through heaps of debris in search of treasures.
In trend-setting urban areas like New York, it has become common to ``recycle'' the ornamentations of old buildings in home and office decor, even using old items in new construction. And it's a taste that's catching on in history-steeped Virginia.
``Some people like to live with something old, something that is made well,'' said Jimmy Casselburg, who owns Caravati's Inc. in Richmond, a drafty old warehouse full of architectural salvage. ``It is very comforting to look at good quality materials and the craftsmanship that shows care and love for what they did,''
Called architectural ornament dealers, nostalgia merchants or even flea-meisters, suppliers such as Casselburg carry a strange inventory: A cornice fragment, a walnut sacristy, a bronze elevator door, a terra-cotta Indian, floor register grates, glass globes, sconces, door handles - everything from century-old brick pavers to the most imperious of fireplace mantels. They are even sources for such acquisitions as 80 linear feet of white picket fencing or a room's worth of heart pine flooring.
In Hampton Roads, a handful of antique stores sell mantels and other prized pieces. Intrepid bargain hunters, however, turn to a weedy collection of lots and shacks at AAA Building & Plumbing Supply Corp. on Maltby Avenue in Norfolk which stocks the discarded windows, doors, shutters and bric-a-brac of the city's past.
In vogue among customers are ornate wrought-iron gate sections, claw-footed bathtubs and Victorian light fixtures. Religious objects or the paneling and pews from churches and monasteries are perennial favorites.
With the exception, perhaps, of bathtubs, the fun in restoring architectural salvage is in using things for purposes other than their original use.
In an imaginatively renovated condominium in the Ghent section of Norfolk, Scott Francis turned old house gutters into towel bars.
At Caravati's, Casselburg said customers buy the brass floor heating grates and hang them on walls, enjoying their Victorian patterns as if they were fine art. Elaborate iron gates that once opened to horse-drawn carriages now find homes as headboards; old shutters make excellent cupboard doors in kitchens and baths; old windows set with mirrors make quite a statement in foyers; and the list goes on.
A resourceful Portsmouth lawyer, Bart Tuthill, used salvage to create the look of a New Orleans courtyard in his independent firm. Columns topped by a wrought iron railing on a mezzanine give the look of a courtyard to the lobby below. Dressed in plants and green fabrics, the lobby is flanked by restored brick walls with etched arches and stone cornices.
Tuthill continued the treatment upstairs, in an office and conference room that were stripped of most modern effects. With exposed beams and bricks and appropriate moldings and historical touches, it looks as if Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would be comfortable meeting there.
Historical accuracy was the goal of Ezio and Stephanie DiBelardino when they renovated a bed and breakfast in downtown Norfolk, The Page House Inn. Ezio DiBelardino, who is also owner of E.D.B. Construction, capitalized on the demolitions of several old homes on Redgate Avenue.
The old Page House, which prominent real estate developer Herman Page built for his family in 1899, was a depressing hulk of a building with boards over the windows. By the time it was condemned in 1985, it had been divided into seven apartments. The open monumental stairway had been walled in and the foyer where a chandelier now hangs was a makeshift toilet.
Somehow the DiBelardinos saw past the rotting wood and looked into history. ``It just seemed like a wonderful old house to save,'' said Stephanie DiBelardino.
Now, a delicate chandelier sparkles through a bay window over the welcoming front porch. Inside an abundance of oak trim envelops guests, lining the many tall windows and archways, wrapping floors and walls and climbing the three-story staircase.
The DiBelardinos picked up the wainscoting and other treasures at the demolition sites on Redgate Avenue. The couple also refinished the home's old windows and used them as kitchen cabinet doors.
While DiBelardino knew from his construction experience how to negotiate the rights to a demolished home, Scott Francis, an art tradesman, simply followed his wits.
In his travels, he frequently passed an old farmhouse in the Holland area of Suffolk. Standing forlornly in a field beside a venerable oak tree, the house seemed to sag a little more each year, losing to time and gravity its porch and then part of its roof.
Francis discovered the house was owned by a woman in Virginia Beach who was planning to burn it when the old farm was sold. Francis paid $300 for the right to demolish the house.
He took home wide-plank, exquisitely worn pine flooring and thick wooden ceiling beams. ``After that I sort of created uses for things,'' Francis said.
He added some glass globes from the old Norfolk Stationary store and some wainscoting from another house under demolition in Park Place. ``I was just driving down the road, and I saw the old ball and chain, so I stopped and said, `Excuse me, sir. . . .' ''
After a few trips to Caravati's and AAA Building Supply, Francis' rather modern condominium began to take on an eclectic and artistic interior. His loft office and bathroom were renovated almost completely from recycled materials.
``If you don't factor in your own time - what it costs you to do these things personally - I think you can win,'' Francis said.
Saving money and time, however, are usually not the motives behind recycled decorating. According to Diana Denbar, who is building a new house with many recycled materials, the cost can reach as much as $150 per square foot to make a new house look old.
Denbar and her husband, Michael, have designed their home in the Pleasant Ridge subdivision of Chesapeake and participated in much of the construction and painting.
They have been collecting objects for more than 25 years. About three years ago, they began shopping in earnest for old things to build into their new home. The entire front door, complete with sidelights, came from Caravati's.
The Denbars also have old built-in kitchen cabinetry standing prominently in their kitchen, along with part of an old tobacco showcase with slots for cigarettes. The couple's living room has an ornate 100-year-old mantle.
In the master bath, a green marble sink has been fashioned to fit on top of an antique dresser and the claw-footed tub is an antique English one that fills from the bottom.
Diana Denbar continues to paint, while Michael makes built-in cupboards and Tiffany-style stained glass for door sidelights, transoms and windows.
Finding the treasures is the start of the process, and decorating or building a showcase home is the end of it. In between is a lot of hard labor. Some objects take three weeks to strip of old-fashioned buttermilk paint which clings tenaciously to aged wood. Carpentry experience or help is often needed to restore objects, and glass must often be replaced. Bathtubs and sinks must be reglazed, old brass must be shined, stone must be cleaned and wood flooring must be stripped, oiled and waxed.
At Caravati's some services are provided or referrals are available. The prices are not always bargains, because the objects are valued for workmanship that could not be reproduced today - at least not at prices anywhere near affordable.
Prices at various locations range from $25 for a pedestal sink and $6 for an old window sash to $6,000 or more for distinguished objects. Old doors can be $10 or $150, depending on their detail and condition. The trade reaches museum quality in places like New York City, where the law firm of Herrick, Feinstein has put together a collection of artifacts and displays them with provenance, such as a finial which is noted as the original from the top of the Woolworth Building, once the highest point in the city.
In Hampton Roads the people who participate are few, though their numbers may be growing as the current preservationist movement spawns a demand for iron, bronze, marble and terra cotta.
Several magazines, such as Southern Living, Country Living and Southern Accents, have featured decorating ideas employing recycled objects and architectural scraps, such as coffee tables made from old windows.
Art Ross, a local home designer, says new trends allow more architects and builders to accommodate recycled objects in their plans.
Caravati's enjoys a steady stream of decorators, contractors and homeowners as customers, and Casselburg holds an optimistic outlook for the future of his trade.
Enthusiasts are also showing up at flea markets, salvage stores, garage sales, antique stores and galleries and bazaars. They ransack the attics of relatives and show up at the demolitions of homes, hotels and other buildings. Demolition companies and salvage businesses are also good sources.
Some people feel an obligation to the past. They go to considerable lengths to surround themselves with these precious links to balance with the modern in their lives.
``You have to be committed,'' Casselburg said. ``You have to find it, strip it, refinish it and bring it back to life. We hope the things we sell go to a good home.'' ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER/Staff color photos
Bart Tuthill uses columns, wrought-iron rails and restored brick to
create a New Orleans courtyard look in his Portsmouth law office.
Renovation of The Page House Inn included rebuilding the mantel and
replacing the cast iron in the fireplace.
Everything in the bathroom of Scott Francis' Ghent condo is
salvaged, including the old house gutters that he put to use as
towel bars.
Art tradesman Scott Francis collects eclectic objects like this neon
clock.
Francis salvaged old rails to use in the loft of his renovated Ghent
condominium.
Graphic
WHERE TO FIND IT
WHAT: AAA Building & Plumbing Supply Corp.
WHERE: 916 Maltby Ave., off of the 1300 block of Virginia Beach
Blvd. in the Brambleton of Norfolk; moving this spring to the corner
of May Avenue and Virginia Beach Boulevard.
WINTER HOURS: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m.
to 1 p.m. Saturday.
PHONE: 622-1523
WHAT: Caravati's Inc. architectural salvage warehouse
WHERE: 104 E. 2nd St. in Richmond. From Hampton Roads, follow
Interstate 64 West to I-95 South; take Exit 73, which is Maury
Street; turn right on Maury Street and go two blocks; turn left on
2nd Street and go three blocks; Caravati's is on the right in the
third block.
WINTER HOURS: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturday.
PHONE: (804) 232-4175
by CNB