Oct 5
Architectural Salvage of Greensboro
Posted by JudyM under: Posts from Judy .
I’ve been cleaning out my attic lately. Saturday I found a stash of historic architecture and decorating books that I gave to Architectural Salvage.
Architectural Salvage was formed in 1995 as an initiative of Preservation Greensboro, Inc. Its only paid staff person is a friendly man named Rick Luebke. (You see him here on Saturday with customer Kay Cashion.) Once the battle to save a historic structure has been lost, Architectural Salvage has a volunteer swat team that goes into action disassembling the building to save as many architectural elements and materials as possible. Then those materials become for sale at their store at 300 Bellemeade Street. Proceeds go back into Preservation Greensboro projects.
There is real irony in the fact that Greensboro has this organization. On the one hand, it’s nice and “green” to match historic materials with people who will reuse them—and keep them out of the landfill. The owner of the demolished building gets a tax break for the donation, and developers presumably get some public relations benefit. On the other hand, the success of Architectural Salvage depends on old buildings continually being demolished. When the city loses architecturally significant old buildings, we lose their style, craftsmanship and unique ornamentation. Our architectural heritage is slowly stripped away.
My house is in a historic district and, with my neighbors, I’ve handed over some of my property rights (the way the exterior of the house and some yard details look) in exchange for maintaining the charm of the neighborhood. Bruce, my aforementioned betta fish, could never live in a historic district. Bruce likes living in the Central Business District because nobody can tell him what he can do with his property. If he wants to live in a scummy bowl, it’s his right to do it. If he wants his water green for St. Patrick’s Day, by golly he’ll have it green. Bruce has minimal appreciation for the context around his bowl. It’s probably the murky water he looks through.
2 Comments so far...
editor1 Says:
6 October 2009 at 9:39 am.
Sadly, more people than fish are looking through murky bowls.
SuePolinsky Says:
7 October 2009 at 12:09 pm.
I think we need Architectural Salvage to “have a booth” at the next downtown event or have a sidewalk sale. Seems like only those “in the know” know about it and a little more publicity and interaction might help. It’s a gold mine that is undiscovered in Greensboro.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.