A vintage cast iron stove is one of a handful of items available when the Vancouver Heritage Foundation holds a five-hour clearance salvage sale at its Richmond warehouse Friday because its lease is up.
The items are leftovers from its primary sale held about a month and a half ago, according to Rebecca Bishop, program manager at the foundation, which is a registered charity founded in 1992 thats dedicated to conserving the citys heritage buildings.
Warehouse space in Richmond was donated to the foundation almost a year ago, but the building has been sold to a developer.
Reasonable offers will be accepted at the clearance sale. Items must be taken away on sale day and there will be no deliveries. Money raised goes to the foundations education and public awareness programs that promote its goals.
The vintage stove is beautiful and unique, but its very old. Its not necessarily a functional stove, explained Bishop. Its not monetary value that were concerned about in terms of selling it. Its just an exquisite old stove.
Robert McNutt of Architectural Antiques donated it, along with other items that have already been sold. The stove was valued at $250, but its sale price on Friday is $100. Other sale items include about 15 doors, a dozen windowssome in pairs, eight sinks, vintage pillbox toilet tanks, fireplace inserts, a set of pillars and old vent registers.
The foundation collects donations from homeowners or from developers and contractors who are demolishing old buildings.
Its just a lot of people who understand the mandate of VHF and want to support us and want to see old salvage find a new life instead of going into the landfill or gathering dust, Bishop said. Primarily [at Fridays sale] we want to clear it out and get it a home instead of it going to the dumpmost of it, we believe, is in good shapethe key here is if someone makes us an offer and wants to give us $20 for a door that had been tagged at $120 well take it rather than send it to the landfill.
Its uncertain how long before the foundation has to vacate the warehouse, but the organizations long-term plan is to operate a storefront in Vancouver. A location in the Downtown Eastside is a possibility.
Weve actually been exploringtrying to partner with the City of Vancouver and see whether they could provide us with store frontage space because our goal would be having a year-round space where people could bring salvage and materials that we could assess, and if they are of sellable value, then we could find a market for them, Bishop said. It would generate a revenue stream for the foundation and it would also enable and promote the citys desire to see materials being reclaimed. We dont support demolition but we would prefer to see as much salvaged as possible if something is coming down.
The foundations existing warehouse is about 4,000 square feet. Having a large guaranteed space in Vancouver would mean it could accept donated items easily.
Sometimes a developer or a builder calls us up and saying, This is coming down in 24 hours. If you can get people here you can take whatever you want. If we dont have guaranteed space to store it, we cant capitalize on the opportunity, Bishop said.
The salvage sale runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 115-7011 Elmbridge Way at Gilbert in Richmond (rear lane), Aug. 5. Photos of items are on the foundations website.
noconnor@vancourier.com
Twitter: @Naoibh
