Allentown, one of the Lehigh Valley’s older industrial cities, carries a building stock that stretches back well over a century, rowhouses, factory buildings tied to the region’s manufacturing history, and a downtown core with its share of early twentieth century commercial architecture, and Southside Architectural Salvage, at 101 Maple Drive, draws its inventory from that regional supply. The business deals in architectural salvage and vintage furnishings, a combination that puts it in the same category as other reclaimed building material dealers who serve homeowners and contractors working on older properties throughout the Lehigh Valley.
On the salvage side, a shop built around this trade typically carries doors, mantels, window sashes, trim, hardware, and similar fixtures removed from area homes and commercial buildings ahead of renovation or teardown, while the vintage furnishings side rounds out the offering with furniture and smaller decorative pieces that carry genuine age. That two part structure means shoppers can approach the business from either direction, searching for a specific architectural element to match an ongoing restoration project, or simply browsing for a piece of furniture with more history behind it than something bought new.
Allentown’s Southside neighborhood and the broader Lehigh Valley region have a long industrial and residential history, with waves of construction stretching from the nineteenth century steel and manufacturing boom through the postwar decades, and that layered building history gives a salvage dealer working the area an unusually wide range of styles and periods to draw material from. A shop sourcing locally in this part of Pennsylvania has access to everything from Victorian era trim and hardware to mid century fixtures, depending entirely on which buildings in the region happen to be undergoing renovation or demolition at a given time.
Because that supply is inherently unpredictable, the inventory at an architectural salvage shop shifts constantly, and pieces that a shopper notices on one visit are often gone by the next, replaced by a different run of material from whatever project most recently supplied the shop. That rotating stock is a defining feature of the salvage trade generally, and it rewards regular visits or a direct call ahead over a single planned trip, particularly for anyone with a specific piece or period style in mind.
Homeowners restoring older properties in Allentown’s historic residential blocks, along with contractors and designers working throughout the Lehigh Valley, are the natural audience for a shop like this, since matching an original doorway, mantel, or piece of hardware to a period appropriate replacement is often easier with genuine salvage than with new manufactured reproductions. Visitors planning a special trip should confirm current hours and inventory before heading out, since stock built around a rotating supply of reclaimed material can shift along with the shop’s schedule.
In short, Southside Architectural Salvage in Allentown, Pennsylvania is an architectural salvage and vintage furnishings shop offering reclaimed building materials and secondhand furniture drawn from the Lehigh Valley’s older housing and industrial stock, serving buyers restoring historic properties or seeking furnishings with real regional history behind them.
