Architectural Salvage -- Where The Past Meets The Present

CUTLINE: THIS 18TH-CENTURY GILT SPANISH CHANDELIER, CLEANED AND NEWLY RE-WIRED BY SEATTLE BUILDING SALVAGE, FITS ITS ENVIRONMENT - A 1927 SPANISH HACIENDA ON NORTH CAPITOL HILL.

About 10 years ago, some friends who were building a new house removed the old oak floorboards from a soon-to-be demolished building at Monroe Reformatory. They spent countless hours selecting enough good boards to completely cover their living- and dining-room floors, and then cutting, laying and refinishing them. If you didn't count their backbreaking labor, the oak hardwood was a bargain. It also was a unique addition to their home - and neighborhood. Who else could boast floor boards from a prison?

For decades, home building in America has been a limited choice between ``new'' and ``improved.'' Remodeling invariably meant replacing porcelain bath fixtures with faux marble, drowned in a sea of Formica. Hardwood floors gave way to linoleum and shag carpets; ceramic tile roofs were scraped off and replaced with asphalt shingles.

All of these things still keep remodelers busy, but times have changed.

Salvage houses, antique shops, and auction galleries now provide more homeowners with surplus parts and unique period items to restore homes that have been remodeled inappropriately over the years.

Steve Ecalbarger, owner of Seattle Building Salvage at 202 Bell St., stocks one of the area's largest supplies of pre-1940 doors, stained glass, lighting and plumbing fixtures. It is almost like shopping in a museum. The warehouse offers a mahogany front door from a 1907 house, a sink from recently demolished West Woodland School, and, for just $3,500, a Belgian bronze chandelier that had graced the Morrison Hotel in Seattle during its heyday when the prestigious Arctic Club was housed there.

Most of the merchandise has been cleaned and refurbished, and the price usually reflects that labor. Far from the eyes of browsing customers, workers in the back rooms transform old lamps into rewired treasures, broken windows into stained-glass wonders. No old part is wasted.

``We do our best to salvage the things that are most reusable,'' says Ecalbarger. ``We do our best business mainly in bathroom fixtures and doors. We sell a tremendously large number of French doors. I'm continually looking to build a large stock of these doors because I don't think they always are going to be available.''

While the stock at Seattle Building Salvage is primarily local, shoppers may come from nearby Portland or Vancouver, B.C., or as far away as San Diego and Denver. Never mind that some people think salvaging efforts undermine efforts to fully preserve historic buildings. These customers, and Ecalbarger, consider themselves preservationists, too.

``What we are trying to do is to save the things that are slated for the dump,'' says Ecalbarger. ``Most of the time the houses that have been stripped are being done by remodelers, not salvagers. To them there is no value to these things and they end up in the garbage. I think we are entering a new era when people are realizing that our natural resources are limited.''

At the opposite end of downtown, Cap'n Sam's Loft, at 410 Second Ave. S., also stocks a large quantity of building parts and lighting fixtures, with an emphasis on pre-1920s commercial and apartment buildings.

Joe Lasky, the co-owner, often looks beyond Seattle to Japan for buyers. ``The Japanese desire American things in their homes and are willing to pay premium prices for them,'' he says.

Other outsiders also pursue his items. Lasky says his second-biggest business is with movie companies filming in the Puget Sound area. He rents old building parts for sets being constructed here, or sells them to leasing companies in California.

Architectural salvage hunters are a varied group. Harper Welch, a former elementary-school teacher, says he bought Victorian woodwork, windows and doors for his Lake Union houseboat years ago because they were more affordable. It was not chic then to collect turn-of-the-century salvage and it was very inexpensive when compared with new materials.

Robert Matulich, a painter who moved into a small house in north Seattle, couldn't resist a bargain - $20 for eight 5-foot-square wood-frame windows from a demolished Maple Valley school. He used them to form a new transparent wall that replaces a small front porch and extends the front facade of the house. Salvaged leaded and colored glass decorates the pediment of the newly built gable.

Brian Coleman moved into his modest Queen Anne home five years ago. He chose the house, despite its aluminum siding, because the interiors were largely intact and most of the woodwork had not been painted over. It was ripe for refurbishing. He has ``Victorianized'' the rooms, using antiques and salvage collected locally and throughout the United States.

The handsome front door was bought at Seattle Building Salvage and has a stained-glass window that features Victorian glass Coleman found on various shopping trips. Two wrought-iron window grilles have been transformed into an iron gate at the front walkway.

Bonnie Spindler, an antique dealer, owns a 1921 Spanish hacienda on north Capital Hill that mirrors the homes of Hollywood movie stars from that period. It originally had an outdoor swimming pool, indoor bowling alley, billiard room and grand ballroom. The restoration began in 1988, when she and her husband bought the house and began filling it with salvaged panel doors, pedestal sinks, period toilets and bathtubs.

Clearly, Seattle has a lot of salvage ``pack rats,'' people driven to own a piece of the past. And sometimes, the past can overwhelm the present. Just ask Gary Gaffner, a local businessman and historic preservation advocate who owns rental properties on Queen Anne Hill. He has been collecting architectural salvage for over 15 years and has the warehouse to prove it.

Unlike typical salvage people, Gaffner and his wife do not simply buy what they need to solve a particular design problem. Instead, they first find the treasures - and then find the places to put them. ``We accumulate way ahead of our needs,'' Gaffner says.

A peek in his warehouse confirms that there are two stone lions that once ushered guests into Elvis Presley's Graceland. There are pillars, paneling, wrought-iron and bronze grillwork, chandeliers, armoires, fireplace faces in stone and wood, English chimney crowns and brick-a-brac of every shape and description. Some of them are out of late 19th- and 20th-century homes, including the Firestone estate and a Rockefeller mansion in New York City. From Seattle, he has stockpiled two terra-cotta lion heads that once stared out from the White, Henry and Stuart buildings on Fourth Avenue. It is a glimpse of the past, waiting for a future home.

LAWRENCE KREISMAN IS THE AUTHOR OF ``ART DECO SEATTLE,'' ``HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN SEATTLE'' AND ``THE BLOEDEL RESERVE: GARDENS IN THE FOREST.'' GREG GILBERT IS A SEATTLE TIMES STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER.

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Salvage resources

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Here are the major building salvage dealers in the Seattle/Portland area. In addition, many antique shops and suppliers specialize in old hardware, plumbing fixtures, lighting, etc. Consult your local telephone directory for locations.

Seattle Building Salvage

202 Bell St.

Seattle, WA 98121

(206) 448-3453

Cap'n Sam's Loft Inc.

410 Second Ave. S.

Seattle, WA 98104

(206) 624-1478

Rejuvenation

House Parts

901 N. Skidmore

Portland, OR

(503) 249-1444

Hippo Hardware

and Trading Company

1040 E. Burnside

Portland, OR 97214

(503) 231-1444

1874 House

8070 S.E. 13th

Portland, OR

(503) 233-1874

Sanford and Sons

743 Broadway

Tacoma, WA 98402

272-0334