To all my fellow junk hunters…. if you live within a few hours drive of Brooklyn, CT and you love yesterday’s architectural treasures as much as we do… you must stop by and visit Rudy’s place one of these days at 12 Gorman Road, a quiet road off of Route 6, easy access from I-395.
At 81 years young – Rudy has owned and operated Brooklyn Restoration Supply for 45 years, now accompanied by his son. Made of several large chicken coops (as in HUGE) and absolutely packed with old house parts, the place and the man are legendary among old house owners, antique collectors, restoration experts and contractors.
As Rudy held his pipe in hand, I asked him what the secret is to living a long and productive life..
He said … “It’s real simple. Keep working. My mother helped me farm this land into her 90’s.” I said… “Did you eat healthy foods fresh off the farm most of the time?” and he said “Heck no. My mother couldn’t break me, and my wife couldn’t break me.”
OK then!…
Rudy is successful for a few reasons, one of which is the fact that he knows how to get his money. He’ll bargain with you just so much, and here you see Mike doing that slow dance.
You have me drooling!!
Karen, I am so jealous. When you showed those urns in the first picture I took a deep breath. Love the milk can, too especially at such a fantastic price. I would love to see that place in person.
Oh…I want those urns! Milkcans? Wisconsin? No problem…but urns like that? Well, I have never seen any quite like that. No matter what you paid- it was worth it…well, unless you had to mortgage the house! xxoo Diana
Haha – what a character. LOVE the urns. I'd be drooling over them too!! Great find.
🙂
ButterYum
I could do some damage there! Wish there was something like this around here. I could have lots of fun hunting for things to make into something else 🙂
Looks like you walked away with some great treasures! Those urns are a dream! They look great on your porch.
Can't wait to see what your hubby does with the window panels.
Oh, you found nice things! We have a store like this in Roanoke called, "Black Dog Salvage". It's fun to poke around these places!
Cool stuff! Looks like my kind of place…you could get lost in there! The urns look great, bet you can't wait to fill them with flowers!
ooooh those urns, they are perfect! We have nothing here at neat as Rudy's. I do believe the East coast has all of the good antiques. When we retire, I want to come to Rudy's and spend the day…maybe two!
I love architectural salvage! We need to replace 5 doors upstairs and I'm considering trying to find some old ones, even if they are all different. It will probably depend upon hubby's willingness to cut them down and make them fit. No easy solution as nothing in our house is standard size!
Love the urns–have you decided what to put in them?
This brings back fond memories of when my husband and I were working on our farm house a few years back. It's so much fun to walk through those salvage places. Love what you picked up. 🙂
What a score! That place looks fantastic for find great projects…. like all those frames (or where they windows) I could have a field day making shell mirrors.
I LOVE places like this. I truly love poking around in junk/architectural-type places.
Love those urns in the front. That sounds just like something I'd say.
WOW!!!
Love the urns, they look great on the porch!
Your new header – LOVE IT!!
Wish I knew how to do that. Hope you have a great day. 🙂
You had me at…*my fellow junk hunters*!
Lucy you! I would be visiting this place once a month just to get my old, chippy, rusty, groove on!
Loved this post and I am having J come take a look right now! 🙂
Beautiful new header, Karen. Give Opie a smooch for me…
xo, misha
I'm partial to the doorknobs, myself! I'm imagining a nice piece of wood, with the knobs mounted, for coats & hats. Just think of all the hands that may have touched them, in the past!
Love the urns and I'm partial to those doorknobs, too!! Used to be a salvage place on the border of Stanford and Riverside, CT where we used to prowl around on weekends when I was still in HS…then I think it got famous and wasn't so much fun…love, love, love all this stuff!! and those old glass doors…ahhhh…xo
Oh my gosh….I would LOVE to go there! Glad you got those urns…they are stunning!
I'm thinking that green pickup would have looked mighty nice parked next to your chicken coop!
DI
Ohhh, I want to come hang out with you for like a week or so. Every time I think I saw my favorite thing, your next photo would be my next new favorite. The door, the glass handles, the cream can, all of it really. And Rudy is probably the best relic of them all!
What a treasure trove of stuff. I wish I could go there. That first image stopped me in my tracks as I'm looking for iron balconies for my house. The urns you bought are fantastic! What a great addition to your front porch. I have an old house too and love old house stuff. I just became you newest follower.
Me thinks you just saw my mansion in the sky. That is heaven!!! And, your coop is coming along mighty fine.
Oh my!! My heart is going pitter pat! I love all of that stuff! I have to find something like that around here! I need some old screen doors or windows for my living room! I WISH I lived near Rudy!
Very cool stuff Karen! You guys got lucky!! I would have a hard time breathing in there I'm afraid. Asthma…it presents a problem when searching in the old time stores…
OMG!! I feel like if I can't get there some how I will go crazy. So many amazing things. Windows, doors, urns. The door knobs had me drooling. Picture that cartoon character that wrings his hands ,drools, licks his lips and says yah,yah,yah,yah. Well that is me right now.
I always wonder where and how people get all this stuff…I mean seriously…that is a lot of stuff accumulated…..
What an amazing place!! I could get lost in there for hours!! = )
such a wonderful tour ~ my husband will be glad i brought nothing home from my saturday junking 🙂 thanks for the fix
OMG, I was just talking to Susan @ FBMKW and somehow I missed this post! I love going to these yards. We used to have one in NH that hubby and I used to go to. I picked up a bunch of glass door knob sets for $4.00 ea. Thanks for a great tour, and I LOVE the urns!