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It was a milestone in the making as Historic House Salvage held a ribbon cutting for its new location, 613 E. Third St., Thursday.
The demolition side of the business, Steinbacher Enterprises, was founded by James Steinbacher in 1971, explained current owner and operator Joslyn Dougherty, who runs the store, along with husband, Matt, who runs the demolition operation.
After graduating high school in 1986, Joslyn's father, David would become part owner, ultimately taking over the business in 2002 in partnership with his brother.
When the salvage side opened, the collected items were kept in an outdoor warehouse, leading to the purchase of the former Holy Rosary Catholic Church on Arch Street in 2012, where the store was formerly housed.
Historic House Salvage features a vast variety of home décor items, both historic and modern, as well as door knobs hinges and other relics of past architecture, all refurbished by the crew.
"The salvage always comes from the demolition side. Whenever we're going to demo a building, we'll salvage from that building," said Matt.
"We salvage anything and everything from houses that we demolish, and then we put them into the store," Joslyn added.
Since acquiring the business from her father in 2016, Joslyn said it was always a goal to purchase a new property for the salvaged pieces.
The process of finding their current location to opening day was a lengthy one, Joslyn said.
"We tore that building down, and did all the excavating work, and we started new," Matt said.
"It took us three years to go through the process from beginning to end, but we've always wanted something that we were all on the same floor and we're able to move our demolition office into here," she said, calling the store "the creative side" of the business.
"I like to be a little bit creative, and when people come in and buy these pieces, you get to see what they actually do with them, so it's kind of cool," Joslyn said.
The new building even incorporated pieces from her grandfather's collection, Joslyn said.
One of the pieces highlighted by Joslyn is a three-piece hutch-like stand recovered from a convent in Danville.
"It's just gorgeous. It's so ornate, and you don't find pieces like that anymore," Joslyn said.
"This chandelier actually came out of one of the houses from Lycoming College. It was in a fire-damaged house, it was nothing but soot, and we redid the whole thing, cleaned it all up and rewired it, and it's gorgeous," she said.
"You just never know what you're gonna run into. That's the best part of it. And we're one of the only ones in the area that does it," Joslyn said.
When asked how the couple feel about finally launching their new location, Matt called it a "relief."
"Just to get all of the plans and everything took nine months, so it's nice for me because our demolition offices are here and the store is here, so it's a lot more convenient for us to be able to run everything together. I love that we're here in town," he said.
"I've always wanted to go into another area where there's more eyes, and people can actually see us because we were kind of hidden where we were," Joslyn added.
"We get people from all over the place. We just had somebody here from Maryland the other day," she said.
"Now a lot of people can see us from the highway. We've gotten so much new foot traffic from being here, it's been great," Joslyn said.
For more information on Historic House Salvage, check out their website at www.historichousesalvage.com or across social media.