What do you do if you have a whole day to explore Chicago? The Sears Tower? See a Broadway show in the Theater District? Eat a real Chicago pizza? Visit a real Chicago Firehouse? Well, recently my sister and I managed to do all those things, but we also managed to see a side of Chicago that was a bit off the beaten path.
I have always owned homes built in the teens and twenties, so looking for old fixtures and knobs is a way of life for me and my never-ending restoration projects. When Karen suggested we try to find an architectural salvage, I was 100% on board. Salvage in a city known for its architecture like Chicago is like gold to those of us who love and live in Arts & Crafts era bungalows. We found a place that was accessible from the L on the Brown Line – Architectural Artifacts.
AA is a bit more like a museum than a salvage store, it actually hosts events like weddings on the main floor. Inside you might find a gargoyle next to a neon sign, wonders at every turn. Most of it was out of my price range, but it was an interesting way to spend a couple of hours.
Hinges and hardware
Gobs of knobs
My reflection multiplied in stained glass
A sting of ideas
The face of an angel
Bottle neck
Sole purpose
Arts & Letters
Quarter sawn
A clock bigger than me
Orange leather
The corner pocket
A nice piece of glass
The Shroud of Zebra
Uplit
Industrial orange
The Knights Who Say “Nee”
Rust
The woman behind the Fruity Chicken
the eff stop 
Jim M. Berberich is possibly the artist
Thanks – It certainly looks like a lot of his work. In the context where I saw it I thought it might have been an older piece. It was stunning none the less.
I recognize the stained glass art of the lady image – know the artist
I think I would have been at home here too. My favorite kind of store!
Thanks for visiting me today!
I saw you on Diana’s Friday pick. My brother has a blog about raising chickens and fruit trees in Las Vegas, so the idea of a farmlet sounds pretty cool:)
Thanks, artsifrtsy, wait till you see our new one we are buying! 😉
Congrats! I’ll be following along.
Great, great pictures. I love the colors, clarity and composition involved. I think they are masterpieces! 🙂 It sounds like you had a great time in Chicago. I think we really do need to spend a little time there! 🙂
It’s a great city with a lot to offer. We did a lot in a day, tiring but a lot of fun.
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Oh wow! If only I could get my mitts on those doorknobs! It seems like quite the place! Amazing shots. Loved them – as usual with your work. 🙂
Thanks so much – I love shooting odd stuff like this and I brought a door knob home with me 🙂
You documented this place wonderfully, great pictures! Maybe I can remember it for the next time I go to Chicago, my brother lives in a little neighborhood called Andersonville. I’ll have to ask him if he’s ever been there, he likes antiquing.
Thanks – We had lunch in a cafe down the street and noticed banners on the street that said North Center. It’s on Ravenswood about a block from the L.
Great shots, but the line of light globes fading into the distance has to be my favourite.
Thanks. That shot was of an old theater sign laying on it’s side. I used my fast 50 for all of these shots – it really handles low light well.
I haven’t been to visit Chicago since I was a teenager and me and my brother hitchhiked from Milwaukee where we lived to Chicago to go to the Museum. Ah, fun times. 🙂 I love going to places like you did. I love all those old things! Great pics as always. I always wanted to change all my door knobs to old glass ones but never could afford it. Well done!
I have all glass knobs that I bought at a thrift store years ago – I spent $16 on a bucket of about a dozen – over the years I have paid many times that for the ones I need to complete my set. I still need another one – someday 🙂
These are gorgeous photos. I would have loved to have seen that giant clock. The doorknobs remind me of the ones I had in my house growing up. Great collection!!
Thanks Madame. I loved that clock and thought it would be awesome standing against a wall in my house. I have glass knobs in my house too and love seeing the variety. Mine are that glass that turns purple.
Love the day, love these photos! When I read your intro, my first thought was find someone to show you the stuff behind the tourist attractions, and you did!
There’s a wonderful architectural salvage that I pass on my way to pick up Flower Child from school. I often wander through, so many treasures! But big $$$$$s.
Boy, you aren’t kidding – I saw mantles there going for 10K – but I did love seeing it all. We did the tourist stuff too, but this was a real treat. I have spent years trying to find all matching door knobs – not easy in the Ozarks. I did find one of the exterior ones, but am still a couple short inside.
Once you’re settled back home, send me an email, and I’ll send you the email/phone of the place by me. Ya never know, I’ve seen a lot of hardware and knobs there. 🙂
That would be awesome! Thanks!
🙂
What a great way to spend a few hours!
It was a blast – I think we spent about 4 hours in that place.
WOW!!!! Just WOW! What an amazing place! What a fantastic collection of photos and nostalgia and ancientness!
The woman stained glass- is the glass painted where her skin and face are?
What’s the industrial orange object? It’s beautiful!! Reminds me of Alessi.
I Love your photos. As always. 🙂
love from Rach.
Thanks Rach – good to hear from you! The woman is some how painted in places – but it’s in the surface, not on the surface. She was life sized and amazing. The orange was the stair treads in the warehouse – I was shooting between floors and loved the color.
What fun – i love chicago and what a cool place to visit! Pictures are wonderful – what I wouldn’t do for a bunch of those glass doorknobs! -and for some reason, MontyPython references keep surfacing in things I am reading – bring me the shrubbery! K
LOL – It’s just a flesh wound! I was so tempted by the doorknobs – I have glass ones at home but was missing a brown swirled ceramic one that was the mate to my porch double doors – I found a match there.
My friend lives 3 blocks from Architectural Artifacts & my sis-in-law got married there. What a fun place. Before this landscaping gig, I used to go with my salvage friend and strip buildings slated to be demo-ed. We’d strip doorknobs, trim, mantles, anything that we could get off the frame of the house. He would make a nice chunk of change doing it. Thanks for the memories!!
It’s a really cool place and I could totally see a wedding there. I have a guy here locally that finds small amounts of salvage, but nothing on this scale. I love this stuff and came home with a new doorknob that matches a lone remaining one on my porch.
I’m supposed to be working on something else right now instead of looking at blogs, but was going through withdrawls, so glad I clicked on this Lori, fantastic set of photographs, such a cool place! I’d go nuts in there!
Thanks – you know I totally love shooting old stuff – the texture and colors are so interesting. It’s way more fun to look at blogs than to do anything productive 🙂
Okay, I know that I say this a lot here, but LOVE LOVE LOVE this set. Exceptional, hilarious, and just plain fun. Lorri, I can’t tell you how happy I am every time I see the message that there’s something new at the eff stop!
Thanks Steph, you’re the best 🙂 I really love shooting “stuff” – finding angles and interesting colors and shapes. This place was a gold mine, plus it was hilarious to walk around amid all this stuff and see things like Victorian toilets and glove molds around every corner.