Editor's P.S.

postscript

architectural salvage.

Whenever I travel to a new town, one of my favorite diversions is scouring architectural salvage shops. My wife and I recently purchased a 1927 Tudor cottage, and we've spent the past six months poking around the South looking for doorknobs, newels, and brass hinges.

The benchmark store to which I compare all others is located in, oddly enough, Cullman, Alabama. Just 45 minutes north of our offices in Birmingham, the town is primarily known for throwing what is perhaps the world's only dry Oktoberfest. This village, however, is also home to a rare find you're not likely to spot anyplace else in the country. The shop is named Southern Accents (though it bears no relation to our sister publication of the same name), and it is a marvelous treasure trove for those who like anything related to old houses.

I enjoy showing off Southern Accents to folks from out of state. It is loaded with gorgeous doors and door hardware, windows, lamps, hinges, bathtubs, and mailboxes. The staff welcomes visitors and has the patience to rummage through hundreds of bathtub faucet handles with you, looking for just the right match. On various trips to Cullman, we've found glass doorknobs ($15), had Southern Accents strip and sand all of our interior doors ($125 per door), and polish and rewire eight iron sconces ($37 apiece). The store's master woodworker, Michael Tomlin, even managed to reproduce our round-topped front door (which had rotted) from 3-inch solid-mahogany planks. For information call toll free 1-877-737-0554.

We're considering a bigger story on the South's great architectural salvage houses, and I'd like to hear about your favorite. Until then, good luck out there. -MORGAN MURPHY

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Sep 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved