The Past, Polished

At the Brass Knob, The Old Is New Again

Jessica and Will Frazier just bought their first home, a 1939 brick townhouse in the Palisades section of Northwest Washington, and discovered that all the original brass switch-plate covers had been painted over by previous owners. "I started chipping off the layers of paint when I realized I didn't really want to spend my time doing that," Jessica Frazier says. Instead of heading to the nearest hardware store, she drove to the Brass Knob in Adams Morgan.

"I knew old replacements would suit the spirit of the house," Frazier says as she flips through a drawer full of vintage brass models. "Thank goodness this place is here."

In a neighborhood where ethnic restaurants and trendy bars come and go, the Brass Knob has remained a constant. It has been there since 1981, when Ron Allan, a historic-preservation devotee and collector of doorknobs, and Donetta George, an interior designer, joined forces to open a shop for old house parts on 18th Street near Kalorama Road. Five years later, they moved next door to a purple Victorian rowhouse that remains a magnet for remodelers, restorers, collectors and people who just love old things.

Yes, the current economic downturn has tarnished demand for bronze door pulls and weathered shutters. But business has been slow at the Brass Knob for several years now, mostly because of the love affair with modern home furnishings championed by such retailers as Crate and Barrel, Ikea and West Elm. Mid-century modern is still the rage with collectors, and until a cultural style shift takes hold, it's going to be tough. "I'm waiting for more traditional and more architectural stuff to start showing up in shelter magazines," George says.

But for those who want American architectural salvage dating mostly from the 1860s to 1940s, the Brass Knob is a destination. George displays 1,000 pairs of doorknobs, including a $345 set of early 1900s bronze knobs engraved with "Public School, City of New York." Walls are lined with hooks, heating registers and doorbell covers. Tall cabinets have drawers labeled "sash locks" and "mail slots." Tiles, mantels, lamp parts and soap dishes for claw-foot tubs are artfully arranged on two floors. Ceilings are dotted with chandeliers salvaged from Dupont Circle manses and Old Town Alexandria townhouses.

"Brass Knob is the antithesis of Home Depot," says Washington restaurant impresario Joe Englert, who shops here for bling for his Atlas District real estate. Englert recently brought George a brass lantern he'd found in Vermont. "I need 12 of them for H Street Country Club, which I'm opening this fall," he says. "She's going to beg, borrow and steal from her collection of lamp parts to make them happen."

The dining room chandelier in Washington designer Darryl Carter's Embassy Row townhouse is a glass-armed Victorian model he bought at the Brass Knob and stripped of its hurricanes and crystals. "I have become famous for coming to them with the strangest and most obscure requests possible for things I need for my projects. They manage to honor them," Carter says.

Allan and George worked in the 18th Street store until 1991, when Allan spun off the larger architectural salvage pieces and began selling them in a separate location known as the Brass Knob Back Doors Warehouse. He toted his radiators, doors, pedestal sinks, pastel toilets and claw-foot tubs to four addresses before landing at 57 N St. NW, where he is today.

He and George stay in close touch, although they now operate as two separate businesses. "I love small decorative things and lighting, and he loves big things," George says.

The Brass Knob has sold to the State Department, the White House, the Treasury Department and even Ralph Lauren stores.

Both stores salvage from some of Washington's best addresses and buy from pickers up and down the East Coast. Occasionally, someone walks in with a box full of ancient hinges and a couple of old brass sconces they want to dispose of. Allan has paint-encrusted double doors from the basement of Eastern Market in stock, as well as metal-fronted doors that were once at Gonzaga College High School. The pilasters in the back were designed by architect Michael Graves for the Woodward & Lothrop building downtown.

Despite sluggish sales, George is forging ahead. Online sales have doubled in the past two years, and she recently placed ads in the New Yorker to draw new customers. (They seem to be going for the light fixtures and decorative metalwork.)

She is seeing what might be a light at the end of the tunnel. "For a while, we didn't have any customers younger than 40," George says. Younger people are used to buying disposable furniture, she says, but "they are coming around."

Gentrification in Washington in the past decade is finally delivering customers in their 20s and 30s. "Lots of young people are moving into the city into neighborhoods like Bloomingdale, Eckington, Shaw and Capitol Hill," Allan says. "Often these people have grown up in the suburbs in modern houses; they think old things are cool."

George is optimistic about younger homeowners, such as the Fraziers from the Palisades, embracing eco-friendly lifestyles and recycling. "People seem to be caring about saving old things again."

The regulars keep coming. On a recent morning, lawyer Mark Morgan, who owns an early 1900s farmhouse in Vienna, came to Adams Morgan to find some well-worn doorknobs that didn't have today's high-polish look. He has been shopping here for 20 years. Says Morgan, "There is no other place like this."