Candace Drake, along with a friend and some contractors, helped build a house from the ground up in a subdivision in Richmond's South Side. Out there, homes tend to be similar to each other, but Drake put some creative thinking into her architecture.

LEFT: Leaded glass windows in the new home of Candace Drake came from a building on the farm where Secretariat was raised. RIGHT: Old tiger maple mantel adds depth of character to new construction.

The entry to her home has leaded glass windows on both sides and in the transom. It was once the back door of an old manor house on the farm where famed racehorse Secretariat was raised. The oldest element in her house is a large elliptical transom above the window in the living room.

The family room sports a mantel of tiger maple that may have come from the same house as the doors leading into the kitchen. These narrow doors, with etched glass windows, amethyst doorknob, and a mail slot, were once on the exterior of a house in the Fan.

"I like the history involved with my antiques," says Drake. "I don't know the stories behind everything I've collected, but the ones I do know are quite interesting."

Drake has been working as an interior designer for Williams & Sherrill, a home décor shop in Richmond, for about a decade, and she and her co-workers have seen a rise in the popularity of using architectural salvage.

"It allows homeowners to be original in a cookie-cutter world," says Troy Scheuer of Williams & Sherrill. "People yearn for a bit of history. They want to feel a connection to the past. The quality and craftsmanship of these items are superior to what we find today. Most of all, architectural salvage promotes environmental awareness."

Luckily for Richmonders, there are several businesses around town that deal in salvaged materials.

Bill Fields of Beckstoffer's, a shop in Church Hill on 28th Street, uses lumber rescued from old buildings to make furniture. He might use the door from an old barn and carve a coffee table from it, or construct a vanity from the floorboards of a church.

"The quality of wood from these buildings is much higher than what is being used today. It is wood that is meant to last a lifetime," Fields says.

Beckstoffer's has been instrumental in preserving much of Richmond's architectural history. In the shop are hundreds of patterns, shapes, and molding samples taken from houses within a 10-block radius of the business. From these samples reproductions are made in restoring houses to their original condition.

ABOVE: Narrow doors with etched glass inserts were original to a Fan District house. BELOW: Bill Fields of Beckstoffer's in Church Hill uses reclaimed lumber in his furniture designs.

Caravati's, located in the Manchester district along the James River, is a warehouse of reclaimed items on over 40,000 square feet in three open lots. Here, you'll find shelves full of doorknobs and latches, stained glass windows, mantels, gargoyles, lighting, bathroom fixtures, a telephone booth, columns, lumber, and just about anything else you would need to build an entire house.

Specializing in rare and unique pieces is Landmark Salvage (formerly Landmark Reclamation), located at 1400 Semmes Ave. The company deals in period pieces: doors, flooring, and antique garden objects, such as fountains, birdbaths, and wrought iron fencing. Landmark also carries the largest selection of granite cobblestones on the East Coast, suitable for building garden walls, driveway dividers, and walkways.

"All these artifacts people are buying come from historic homes in the city and placed into suburban houses that have little character," says Chris McCracken, owner of Landmark Salvage.

"In a way," he continues, "it helps maintain a city's identity by not letting history fall into scrap piles. It's not disappearing altogether, just being moved." Landmark Salvage helps people take rare and hard-to-find pieces and integrate them into their homes. There is an in-house cabinetmaker who can be commissioned to build furniture out of salvaged lumber. Reproductions of handmade iron hardware for doors and windows are also available.

"Metal recycling has become the first line of reclamation," says Stuart Harlow, the salvage sales manager of S.B. Cox. "This is evident in all the new condos that are being restored from old warehouses. These old buildings would have been torn down otherwise."

S.B. Cox, at 5200 Hatcher St., is Richmond's demolition contractor, responsible for tearing down 6th Street Market Place and the Armory on Leigh Street, as well as other buildings in Richmond and around Virginia.

There is a large salvage yard out back full of lumber, doors, windows, a Spanish ATM machine, and everything else, including a few kitchen sinks. A lot of these items would be more costly to salvage and restore than to buy new, but either way, it's the look of authenticity created by history people want.

"I save as much as possible," says Harlow. "Everything has value. Everything can be recycled. See this?" He produces a metal gasket from a radiator. "Someone, somewhere is looking for this."

Waste not, want not "I am always on the lookout for interesting objects," says Ellen Norris of Caryatid Interiors. "When I buy something, hundreds of ideas pop into my head of what it can be used for. I don't believe anything should go to waste." Norris recycles and repurposes. She reaches up and pulls a game called "Tangoes" off an aluminum shelf that was once a fluorescent light fixture. Strolling around Ellen's mid-century house, you'll notice similar objects that have been salvaged and used in different contexts. There is an old window shutter fastened to the wall and used as a magazine rack; the grill taken off an Alfa Romeo is now a lamp; a large glass lens that may have been part of a spotlight functions as a bowl holding fruit. Ellen uses her basement as a studio where she creates these new and interesting objects out of items that otherwise would have been tossed into the trash. Her clients know, when they commission her, they'll get something different – an original piece to suit their personalities. When a house is slated for demolition, there are different ways of salvaging what's inside. Sometimes a company is able to bid on the salvage rights of a house and take whatever it wants. Sometimes the owner will offer the salvage for a small price or even gratis. Ellen Norris, top left, redefines objects that are often headed for trash heaps.