Inside a World War II quonset hut, a building shaped like a silver half-moon, lies two cased doors resting along tall wooden crates. This door sticks out in the Salvage Shop like a sore thumb; it’s the tallest object in the entire shop, but it’s also quite beautiful. The top of the door has a half-circle structure with details on it to look like rays of sun. Besides the fade and chipping of paint, this door remains completely intact and in decent condition. The only thing it was missing is its story.
Until the team lead of the Salvage Shop Teri Jordan said a customer visited the shop and recognized the door. They were able to pull up pictures and share documents about the house, proving it belonged to a church in Durham. Finally, the case had been solved.
“To me, that was very meaningful because it’s important for us to know the story behind the piece,” Jordan said.
Burlington Preservation is a nonprofit organization focused on protecting the architectural heritage structures of the local community. One way they do this is by going to historic homes set for demolition and salvaging parts of the house, such as doors, floors and windows. Another preservation effort is giving grants to homeowners to help with preserving a piece of their house, whether it’s the tile flooring or a porch. That’s where the Salvage Shop comes in.
Salvage Shop opened in 2019 as a way for Burlington Preservation to fund their grants for the local community and is open the first Saturday of each month. Located in the historic Glencoe neighborhood, the Salvage Shop is around 5,000 square feet and is filled with collections of “house parts” and various vintage knick-knacks that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill.
Jordan said the ultimate goal is to let these pieces have a new life in someone else’s home.
“We are saving pieces of history,” Jordan said.
Jordan said around half of their visitors are first-timers, and people have come from Chapel Hill and Durham to shop. She said most people find this place from a quick Google search or by word of mouth.
One common type of customer that the Salvage Shop attracts is homeowners with historic houses. Karen Way owns a 1940s home, and Nov. 2 was her first time visiting the shop. She stopped by to look for a vintage door authentic to the time period.
“I think it is very vital to keep the history, especially in these areas of mill towns,” Way said.
Way said she thinks it’s important to have spaces like this shop to be able to reuse items that would otherwise go to waste.
Jerry Nix, a homeowner of an 1840s house, said the Salvage Shop isn’t called the “ultimate recycling place” for nothing. He’s been to the Salvage Shop six times — this time to find window sashes.
“It’s great to take parts of houses and use it for creative purposes and restore houses that need replacements,” Nix said.
Jerone Bias is an adviser on the board of Burlington Preservation and has been a volunteer with the Salvage Shop for the past four years. He continues to volunteer because of the impact this organization has on saving houses, but also because the shop has “cool stuff.” He even bought the flooring for his 120-year-old house at the Salvage Shop.
One of the motivators Bias said continues to drive this work is how unique Burlington and local town’s neighborhoods are.
“You can have urban living type items spread throughout the area, as opposed to everyone living in the southern historic houses,” Bias said. “We're fostering that and letting that grow.”
But, Burlington Preservation can’t get to all houses planned for demolition, so Jordan said she is hoping to expand their collaboration with nearby contractors to help extract items. She said she hopes to expand this initiative into the county and expand their online presence, one of them being creating an Etsy shop.
In addition to physical salvage, they also collect artifacts through donation, or in particular estate situations such as if someone has recently inherited a house possessing historical architecture.
Within the past three years Burlington Preservation has raised $42,550 towards grant funding, which Jordan attributes most of this profit right here in the Salvage shop, but this wouldn’t be if not for the help of all the volunteers of Burlington Preservation.
“I want everyone to know that we’re all volunteers,” Jordan said. “I think that’s what makes us unique. That’s something we are proud of.”