Owner Jesse White opened Sarasota Architectural Salvage (SAS) in 2003. Located at 1093 Central Ave in Sarasota, FL, the 10,000-square-foot warehouse and adjacent yards are a veritable wonderland of historical building elements, handcrafted goods, and unique antiques sourced locally and globally. White’s mission is both environmental and monetary: he rescues historically significant objects from destruction, extending their life cycles.
White describes it like this: If you convert a beam from a building into a dinner table, you preserve the energy it took to create the original beam. If the beam is discarded, that energy is wasted. By salvaging and repurposing objects, that “embodied energy” is retained and redistributed. As a former environmental consultant, White conceived SAS as a business that captures and reallocates energy. “This is my expression of environmentalism…I need to walk the talk…have a career that makes money and feeds the soul,” says White.
The result: a curated selection of historically significant objects and building elements. About half of the inventory is architectural salvage, while the other half includes antiques and handcrafts, making SAS a one-stop shop for period-specific materials for home restoration or decoration. Recently, White helped a customer restore the original spirit of her historic home by providing hard pine flooring from the same era.
“Antique, Unique, Handcrafted”
White’s motto for curating the store is that items must be “antique, unique, handcrafted.” Among recent acquisitions are stunning old doors from India and a container of treasures from Egypt. One of White’s most notable projects over the past two decades was salvaging parts of the iconic John Ringling Towers, formerly the El Vernona Hotel, renowned for its Spanish architecture in Florida.
Before the John Ringling Towers were demolished in 1998, White was hired to salvage key elements, including colorfully painted beams. Some parts were used to restore the Ca’ d’Zan, the Ringlings’ winter home on the Art Museum grounds. The remaining parts were curated and sold in collaboration with the Historical Society. “It was sort of the holy grail for us to get that project,” says White. “It’s the kind of building so many people in Sarasota had a connection with.”
As White sold parts of the John Ringling Towers, many buyers reminisced about their connections to the building, from high school dances to vacations at the hotel. Even though the materials were reduced to components, they still held pieces of the building’s spirit, evoking memories. White’s philosophy on the “inherent energy” of salvaged objects captures this sentiment.
Salvaging as story telling
Much like the John Ringling Towers project, White continues to sell objects that people either feel a personal connection to or find intriguing. “People want to know where [the object] comes from, what the story is, why it’s significant,” says White.
White often jots down the history of the objects on the backs of business cards or receipts as a keepsake for customers. These small notes serve as reminders that buying salvaged architecture and antiques isn’t just recycling; it’s about stewarding the history of the object and continuing its story.
Follow Sarasota Architectural Salvage on Instagram for updates on stock and unique finds.
