Caravati’s Architectural Salvage is part hardware store, part antique shop and part repository of historic building products. Chances are if you’ve bought a home in Richmond City it was built long before Lowe’s and Home Depot existed. Those super stores don’t carry a doorknob assembly from the 1960’s or replacement feet for a clawfoot tub.
But Caravati’s does.
Located across Mayo’s Bridge in the Manchester neighborhood just over the river from downtown, this 40,000 square foot warehouse looks like most of the buildings in that area. The brick is faded and slightly crumbling, industrial windows dot the facade, old iron work decorates the exterior where it can. You might miss Caravati’s if you’re not looking for it, the main entrance indicated by a bathtub hung over doors installed for function not aesthetics.
I’d first heard of Caravati’s while supervising a historic renovation project in an old building. I needed to find exact replicas of doors which had been accidentally thrown away by a demo contractor. My boss sent me down to Caravati’s and I spent a few hours looking through hundreds of doors and amazingly found what we needed, and a crisis was averted.
Having been around building most of my life I am the type of person who enjoys browsing the tool aisle. I like lumber yards and supply houses. Visiting these places lets you see the guts of the buildings you live in, work at, eat at and have fun in. Sure it’s not as glamorous as the Michael Kors store however I find it infinitely more interesting.
Going to Caravati’s is just….well, fun! It’s amazing the collection of building products, parts and pieces of hardware and other miscellaneous items they’ve acquired. When you think about it, because these are salvaged items from other peoples’ homes the objects have a history that goes much further than some factory in China.
Walking into Caravati’s is like stepping back in time. The warehouse has been operating under the same family for 77 years, which in this day and age is a rare and rapidly diminishing phenomenon.
The air smells, as one would expect, of old things. It’s musty and dusty, with the faint scent of old wood.
The first room is full of smaller items, such as old doorknobs, window latches and hinges. There are also hanging lamps, faucets and old decorative tiles. You can find replacement parts for fans, miscellaneous light fixture globes and picture frames.
What I really enjoyed about walking in to Caravati’s was the startling lack of a sales pitch. It’s not like you’d wander here by accident and it’s clearly a destination shop however it was nice to be greeted pleasantly and then left alone to wander the aisles without being asked every 5 minutes if I needed something.
I can’t think of anywhere else in the city where you can even some close to finding such a varied selection of historic renovation products.
Finding your way around Caravati’s is a bit of do it yourself experience, as there are multiple doors leading to different rooms with no real signage to speak of. What’s behind Door Number Three…..who knows!?
But that’s the fun of coming down and wandering around, you never know what you’ll find.
Most of the smaller interior items are in the first room and then the outer rooms contain the larger items like porch columns, old doors, old clawfoot tubs and even entire fireplace mantels!
Even if you’re not actually shopping for a current house renovation it’s still fun to wander around pretending you own one of those massive houses on Monument Avenue and thinking of what you’d purchase. At least that’s what I did, and in fact several times I found myself trying to come up with an excuse to buy some of the really neat items I came across.
Surely there must be a reason I need some stained glass panes, a mantel for my non existent fire place, or an antique oven and stove top combo that would look right at home in a 1940’s kitchen, right?
I responsibly talked myself out of any crazy purchases and left Caravati’s empty handed. This won’t be my last trip down there though, and next time I’m taking something home with me!
Unless you’re looking for something specific or are actually shopping for items to repair or renovate your house, a stop in at Caravati’s just to browse and see all of the neat items they have wouldn’t take more than an hour.
I’ve definitely had time to kill and burned hours on something not even as remotely interesting as wandering aimlessly through the dusty aisles picking through some history that you can touch.
