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From beautifully rusted old-world iron work to finely built new furniture, the stretch of Ninth Street between Second Avenue and tucked along the Gowanus canal where subway tracks soar high overhead, is a honeycomb of architectural and design gems waiting to be discovered. Consider this your treasure map!
New York Old Iron — 28 Ninth St. (under the F/G tracks), Brooklyn
To enter New York Old Iron is to be immediately overwhelmed, in the most delightful way, by the immense selection of artifacts. At once both haphazard and remarkably organized, the outdoor lot features an array of iron, wood and ceramic pieces interspersed with dressmakers' dummies, furniture of questionable origin and antique appliances.
With a jovial demeanor and classic Brooklyn lilt, New York Old Iron proprietor Roy Vaccaro looks like he was sent straight from Central Casting to greet you. When asked how long he's been in the scrap business, Roy quips, "My whole life!" In fact, the Vaccaro family has been in the trade for well over a hundred years at locations throughout the borough. Vaccaro's been at this Ninth Street location for over seven years.
The Dixon team has had more than a few eureka moments at Big Iron when hunting architectural pieces for home renovations. "When we're doing a full restoration of a brownstone, especially in a landmarked area, we go to the Department of Buildings archives and get a 1938 tax roll photo to see exactly what the home used to look like. That's especially helpful when the original elements are missing," notes Kirk Mitchell, Dixon's director of architecture & design.
Armed with photos or actual pieces from homes in renovation, the Dixon projects team scours locations like Old Iron to find the perfect match. Their hunt is primarily focused on wrought iron and wood, including newel posts, balusters, railings, mantels, staircases and decorative radiators.
Sometimes the search to find that perfect match isn't as arduous as finding a needle in a haystack, as different architects and time periods focused on a relatively small set of designs elements popular at the time, such as acanthus leaf or quatrefoil motifs.
Meanwhile, certain pieces, say cornice brackets that need to withstand elements for years to come or massive brownstone entry doors that cost thousands of dollars used, plus the cost of restoration, might be made new, milled and carved based on molds and photos of original items found at scrap yards.
Electrical, plumbing and heating systems are entirely upgraded in Dixon homes, negating the need for things like salvaged light fixtures and kitchen sinks. "Our higher end properties are all turnkey, so with the exception of architectural details, nearly everything is brand new," Mitchell points out.
With items sourced from demolitions, schools and estates, you never know what you might find just around the next corner at New York Old Iron. Scrap yards like this have grown particularly popular among area restaurants and bars, whose owners can come scavenge for items that create a commanding design statement — say a wall covered entirely in old shutters and window frames or tables constructed from disused doors — on a limited budget.
Even if you don't have an architecturally significant restoration project on your hands, New York Old Iron is a great location for procuring unique furniture or rustic, dare we say, "shabby chic," decor. New York Old World Iron is open to the public, whether you want to buy a single, 1970s-era clock festooned with bright-eyed kittens or a truck-full of ornate iron newel posts.
"This is my collection," Vaccaro says. "To me, it's all treasure."
Big Reuse - Brooklyn — 69 Ninth St., Brooklyn
Directly across from Old Iron, is a vast treasure hunt of another kind. As part of a non-profit devoted to waste reduction and green causes, Big Reuse is a huge warehouse space filled with an eclectic selection of mostly interior pieces, including everything from an ornately carved mantelpiece to an entire IKEA-era kitchen.
Here, racks of original crystal door knobs stand just feet away from aisles of modern appliances, so while most pieces are ready for use with little restoration or refinishing effort, you'll still need to do a bit of searching to unearth your riches. For the Dixon team, Big Reuse is a go-to source for accessories like period door hinges and drawer pulls.
As New York City's only non-profit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials, Big Reuse not only diverts millions of pounds of lumber, appliances, furniture and fixtures from landfills every year, but the proceeds from their Gowanus and Astoria locations also support local green initiatives, including the NYC Compost Project, Big Blooms and Big Gives Back. At Big Reuse, you'll score great treasures for your home while being kind to Mother Earth.
FIND Home Furnishings — 43C Ninth Street, Brooklyn
If New York Old Iron and Big Reuse are slightly jumbled collections, ideal for intrepid hunting and discovery, FIND Home Furnishings is a refined, highly-curated collection of neatly presented treasures, newly made, often based on historical design themes. The large, open space is filled with furniture, light fixtures and art pieces from both local and international artisans found through the owners' long history in the design trade.
While about 90 percent of the inventory at FIND are new, some work is made from reclaimed items or made in homage to industrial or old-world themes. "We do mostly upscale home furnishings, but we definitely mix in reclaimed pieces when we can," notes operator Seamus Creighton. According to Creighton, FIND moves inventory quickly, allowing them to nimbly keep pace with current home fashions. "Right now, everyone wants industrial lighting, and we try to stay with the trends," he says.
Creighton points out the block's businesses are a close-knit group, noting that Vaccaro drops by occasionally to get out of the cold. "We all kind of work together. It's an interesting area of Brooklyn because of how industrial it is. There're production spaces, performance spaces and galleries and metal shops," he explains. And it's true the businesses on the block have endured hardships together — the area was entirely under water due to Hurricane Sandy's surge up the Gowanus Canal — and managed to not only recover, but thrive.
Whether you're up for searching through relics of a bygone age to find a unique piece to restore or you prefer the reclaimed aesthetic in a new, artisan-crafted piece, an adventure to Gowanus will yield the treasures you seek.
You simply need to know where to look.
