The thrill of the hunt
April 18, 2020 by Christopher Brandt, Advocacy & Education Coordinator
Living room furnished mostly through craigslist, estate sales, and antique stores
One of my favorite past times, or obsessions if I'm being honest, is hunting down lost pieces of my house's character. Trying to find the right light fixture, door hardware, piece of furniture, or cool vintage appliance all on a limited budget can be a challenge, but it is one I relish and have admittedly gotten pretty good at doing. Partaking in this endeavor is not for the faint of heart as it often involves hours of my time with particular searches stretching out over months, and sometimes years...but trust me, if you're up to it, the effort is totally worth it. While I'm not giving up all of my secrets, here are some resources and ideas for how to go about finding that perfect antique or vintage piece.
Historic Houseparts, image courtesy Transit Apparel
Architectural Salvage businesses are doing god's work saving the elements of homes and buildings that have met untimely ends, but they are also one of my all-time favorite haunts and an excellent place to get nearly anything for your house, from windows to doors, light fixtures and more. If not made aware of the passing of time, I can often spend hours at either of our two great local architectural salvage places, Historic Houseparts and ReHouse. Jim, Chris, and Sally are fantastic resources and are endlessly helpful with finding that just-right part or even appropriate reproduction pieces too. I've gotten everything from these finicky pyramid-head screws for my door hardware to a custom ordered reproduction faucet for my kitchen sink.
Pyramid head screws and door hardware from ReHouse
Reproduction cabinet hardware and custom faucet from Historic Houseparts
Rochester and the Upstate New York region are blessed with an abundance of resources when it comes to looking for vintage and antique items. There are countless antique stores, some of them huge co-ops like Ontario Mall Antiques, that are chock full of potential treasures. We've furnished half of our house by just searching through antique stores. The co-ops are sometimes better as you can often find dealers who may be willing to negotiate, or are clearing out their inventory. If you're up for a day trip, Boukeville, NY is an antique mecca with nearly a dozen shops and a massive week-long summer meetup.
Although not as easy as just going to a regular 9-5 antique store, another great resource for sourcing furniture and appliances is working the modern "classifieds." I like to use a three-pronged approach of Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Estatesales.net. All of these require diligence as estate sales only last 1-2 days, so you'll need to constantly review upcoming sales, and Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace can sometimes be a bit of a feeding frenzy depending on how desirable the item is you are looking for. I have established a habit of reviewing specific saved searches and upcoming estate sales at least twice a week. We scored several pieces of furniture and our 1939 fridge from these sources.
Camera purchased through eBay.
Last but certainly not least is looking further afield through national interfaces like eBay, Etsy, and others. eBay, in particular, is great for light fixtures, ephemera, and some house parts. Etsy surprisingly has a lot of vintage stuff on it as well. I tend to prefer eBay over Etsy as their user interface allows you to tailor searches, save them, and receive notifications when new items have been listed. I've tracked down everything from pristine copies of our bedroom ceiling lights to a working example of the Kodak movie camera used to film our house's construction in 1928 through eBay. Similar to hunting on Craigslist or Estate Sales, you have to be pretty diligent with monitoring your eBay and Etsy searches as well as keeping track of the items you wish to bid on.
Bedroom ceiling light fixture from eBay.
I hope some this proves helpful and perhaps encourages you to go down the rabbit hole with me. In these times of a rapidly changing climate, I strongly believe that as historic preservationists we should not only be advocating to save the places and spaces that make up our region's cultural heritage, but we should also be conserving the resources we have from buildings, to house parts, to furniture. Used, vintage, and antique items large and small possess their own history and character, as well as their own capacity to conserve energy and outlast the new store-bought items we're taught to desire.
Craigslist Fridge, Antique store ceiling light