Field Trip: Discovery Architectural Antiques

Matt & I hadn't gone on any little weekend adventures lately, so we decided to make a field trip down to Gonzales to check out a big architectural antiques (i.e., antique building supplies) store called Discovery Architectural Antiques.

It was totally the mother lode. In fact, they had even more stuff than Adkins Architectural Antiques in Houston, which is saying something. They had lots of lovely stained glass.


They had pressed tin ceiling tiles.


They had bunches of light fixtures,


strangely pretty commodes,


strangely tiny bathtubs,


and creepy Masonic doorknobs


They had oddly adorable radiators (this one reminds me of a piglet somehow, but in a good way).


But most of all, they had doors. This place was the Khazad-dûm of doors.

Left: Discovery door warehouse; right: Khazad-dûm

Normal doors,

big doors,

and turquoise doors.


They had a special complex of slightly scary and ramshackle warehouses separate from the main store that had hundreds and hundreds of doors (actually, over 6,000, according to the sales dude.) It's pretty amazing.

The prices, on the other hand, weren't as good as you would expect, given the huge warehouses of inventory. Raised 5-panel doors like ours cost close to $300--Mom & Dad bought ours at Round Top for (if memory serves) $80 a piece. Even taking into account Dad's special bargaining gene and the fact that we bought several at once, the average human should be able to do a lot better than $300.

However, if you really need at 9-foot tall door with a stained glass inset and a gothic point at the top, for example, you're probably willing to pay $2,000. In other words, if your need is really particular, this place may be your salvation.

And also, on an unrelated note, Gonzales is home to two free-range tortoises promenading solemnly down avenues of bonzais (only one visible below). Odd but true. And now Matt wants one.

Nice lamp