Antique Hunters Target Reclaimed Wood
Travel through the little towns and villages in the countryside surrounding almost any big city in the United States on a warm, sunny afternoon and chances you will find a good many antique hunters ahead of and behind you on the road. And who can blame them? A pleasant ride through the countryside is always a nice way to escape from the high-intensity atmosphere that is urban living. However, while a little country air is motivation enough, a few New York City dwellers are heading the outskirts of town to search for a different kind of antique; antique woods.
One particular group of upper east side antique hunters has gotten together and rather than spend their weekend by setting down a blanket in Central Park for an afternoon picnic, or taking a bike ride around battery park, they are hightailing it to all parts north of New York City and searching for woods from old barns, schoolhouses, or any other building or structure built before 1900. These are antique freaks that in years past would get together during the week to research areas where they thought they could find choice antiques and then they would head to these spots on the weekend to see what they could find.
The following week was spent displaying and bragging about their old treasures, should they have indeed found a piece worth boasting about, while those that came up dry went back to the maps to hunt for a new spots. Lately though, one member of the group after having read about the value and beauty of using reclaimed wood, suggested that the group expand its horizons and begin to scour old barns antique timber and then to see what use they could make of it.
“We all loved searching for antique pieces to put in our apartments and condos but after a while we were running out of prime areas within driving distance of the city. Then Gary suggested that perhaps we should look old wood from turn of the century buildings and to then see what we could do with it.” The idea sounded good to some of them, crazy to others. They already had other jobs and they sure didn’t want to become furniture makers.
It only took one or two weekend adventures to the country for this group to realize that in finding antique wood, they had ventured into an entirely new world of antiquing and soon they were all competing to find old hardwoods to be used for new furniture around their homes.
In one small town outside of Acra, N.Y. one member of the group, John P. found an old building that was once used for a general store and post office. After a little help in locating the owner of the building, John P. asked if he could take a look inside. The older gentleman that owned the building was more than happy to give John a tour, complete with an oral history of the building and the surrounding area. While pretending to listen intently to the tales being told by this village elder, John noticed that the flooring in the largest room in the building, presumably the sales area of the old relic, was probably cherry. After a little negotiation, John convinced the owner of the building to sell him the floor planks and shortly thereafter, his posh NYC condo had a new, polished cherry floor. Granted it took some work in getting the planks from Acra, N.Y. to NYC, not to mention the cost of the carpenter, who transformed the old boards into a beautiful new floor, but for John, it was well-worth the trouble and money.
Others in his group have also found similarly attractive woods from old barns that they have made into farm tables and other furniture to adorn their urban apartments.
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