Southerners know a little something about homes with soul. Whether we’re rebuilding after a storm or simply seeking storied antiques, salvage yards offer an opportunity to repurpose quality craftsmanship from the past rather than relegate it to the landfill. The following destinations aren’t junkyards; they’re living museums of the South’s architectural heritage, filled with everything from heart pine flooring to leaded stained glass. From Virginia down to Florida, here are eight Southern salvage yards worth a detour.
Roanoke, Virginia
It all started when buddies Mike Whiteside and Robert Kulp, who had both served in the Navy, decided to save an 1892 house filled with gorgeous architectural details in Roanoke, Virginia. As they brought the building back to their small warehouse piece by piece, they wrote SALVAGE on a piece of scrap and set it out by the road. Moments later, a customer pulled up. Since then, the co-owners’ salvage hobby has evolved into the Salvage Dawgs TV show; a full-time workshop for fabricating custom builds; and a 40,000-square-foot facility housing antiques, local art, and an outdoor stage (rescued from a drive-in movie theater).
Try to plan your visit around the third Sunday of the month, when Black Dog plays host to the Dog Bowl Market, a gathering of local antiques vendors, artisans, and musicians. If you’ve got the time, plan at least a day to paw around their treasure-filled facility. Or book a room: You can stay next door to the showroom in their renovated rental, the Stone House, and sleep amongst architectural inspiration.
Sarasota Architectural Salvage
Sarasota, Florida
“Reduce, reuse, recycle” was a common refrain in Jesse White’s first career as an environmental scientist. He says he quickly noticed that the most powerful “R” was “reuse.” Now after twenty-two years in business, the Sarasota Architectural Salvage founder has rescued such historic artifacts as pieces from the Ringling Estate, a wingspan replica of a Wright brothers plane, and an old wooden drawbridge to Bird Key in Sarasota Bay. What advice would he give to new-to-salvage shoppers? “Think about any project,” he says, “and then just ask, ‘Can I use a reclaimed material for this application?’” Embrace the character that comes from previous uses, he adds, such as nail holes, dings, and dents.
Schiller’s Architectural and Design Salvage
Tampa, Florida
Fourteen trailers full of anchors, bronze bells, dive helmets, portholes—the list of maritime salvage at Schiller’s goes on and on. But the Tampa mainstay re-homes more than just artifacts inspired by its nearby coast. Co-owners Charlie and Larry Schiller (“But it’s Larry’s baby!” the couple jokes) have saved heart pine architectural elements from the Belleview Biltmore Hotel as well as pieces of the old Tampa Theatre and the Tampa Bay Hotel. The Schillers suggest thinking about architectural materials in new and innovative ways, like using an old stone bowl as a sink basin in a powder room, repurposing doors on your pantry, or adding antique beams in a new-build home for warmth and a sense of age.
Springfield, Tennessee
Inside a historic tobacco warehouse just thirty miles north of Nashville, a 38,000-square-foot maze of salvage awaits, filled with the remnants of historic properties from near and far. Here you can find rescued doors, cast-iron bathtubs, mantels, stained glass, antique lighting, and even entire bars. With a long background in carpentry, owner Doc Keys and his crew specialize in complicated salvages that require construction expertise. Keys says his barbacks and architectural salvage have gone on to find homes in restaurants, hotels, private homes, and even as movie props.
Southern Accents Architectural Antiques
Cullman, Alabama
Garlan Gudger’s architectural salvage began out of a two-car garage in 1969 and today has grown into Alabama’s oldest and largest architectural salvage facility. The second-generation family-run collection is also a workshop where on-staff artisans and restoration experts rehabilitate wood pieces and conceive custom built-ins and projects for homeowners, restaurateurs, and hoteliers. (Find the Southern Accents team’s custom work throughout the South, including at the Westin Nashville.)
Jacksonville, Florida
“Up to 40 percent of landfills are [composed of] building materials,” says Annie Murphy, co-owner of Eco Relics, who along with her husband, Michael, opened a shop to reduce that waste in 2014. Most of their finds come from within a hundred miles of Jacksonville, including old growth pine flooring from the Dyal-Upchurch building, which was built after the city’s Great Fire of 1901. But you might also stumble upon one-of-a-kind stunners like a fifteenth-century throne. With a 50,000-square-foot warehouse and an acre of outdoor space, it’s a place you can get lost in for hours. More than just a shop, it also serves as Jacksonville’s Rail Yard District community heartbeat, playing host to concerts, art fairs, and fundraisers to benefit local charities.
Two Mountain Gems
If you find yourself on a trip to any of the charming mountain towns of Western North Carolina, set aside some time to bring home a treasure from the Blue Ridge foothills. In Brevard, don’t miss the Underground Salvage Co., a gigantic warehouse full of antique signs, lightly refinished furniture, vintage artwork, and a slab yard out back with marble, iron, and wood pieces. Just west of Highlands, on the outskirts of Franklin, sits Culpepper’s Otto Depot, a well-organized operation that’s absolutely packed with wrought iron, leaded glass, salvaged wood, doors, knobs, and windows.
