July 1st, 2008
Nor’East Architectural Antiques Fire
I just heard this from a friend: on June 3rd, Nor-East Architectural Antiques burned to the ground. Nor’East was the company that won salvage rights to Danvers State Hospital as well as to the Northampton, Foxboro, and Metropolitan state hospitals.
Not only have we lost most of the buildings, but now all these artifacts are gone as well. I don’t know all the details, but there must have been many beautiful pieces of asylum history that burnt in the flames. Hopefully a good number of items salvaged from the hospitals were sold well before this tragedy though.
Nor’East appears to be doing okay in spite of this horrible setback to their business and is soldiering on. I’m sure we all wish them the best.
I’m surprised I didn’t hear about this sooner. Usually stories like this one travel fast.
UPDATE: I found a few articles related to this story.
1) South Hampton Reeling After Major Fire
2) “We’re Definitely Not Quitting”
John Archer’s artifacts become even more valuable now. He was about to purchase even more DSH items until this news broke.
Sad indeed, I bought a set of Danvers window bars from them in late 2005. They were just moving into this place at the time I think. Nicest people to deal with too! Hope they get back on their feet soon.
Man they were really nice people. I spoke to them a few times. I wonder if the Met State Clock face was lost? I don’t think they had a whole lot left from DSH, at least not from what I saw on the website.
I think they had a bunch of stuff that wasn’t listed on the web site. It was a few years ago, but I seem to remember contacting them about something from Danvers and they suggested I come in to look at everything they had available since it wasn’t all listed on the site. I never went though. That was dumb of me.
I have pictures of Nor’East Architectural Salvage from last October. They can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reallystrangegirl/sets/72157605888953135/
I have been in contact withthe owners and have given them permission to use the photos in their efforts to rebuild.