Well-traveled Stone

Rhodes Architectural Stone reclaims antique materials from around the world to make them available to architects and builders in the U.S. The salvage firm’s recent reclamations include antique Yangtze limestone, salvaged from villages in China’s Yangtze River Valley. Other materials include antique pewter granite, cosmos stone, antique Corillian black limestone, and antique jade ink stone. Clients receive a detailed provenance of the material’s history: its source, a map of its original location, and an explanation of why and when the source was demolished.

But salvaging and sourcing antique stone is only 50 percent of the company’s business. “We also quarry new materials and process them in very unusual hand finishes—what you’d see in Europe’s great cathedrals,” says Richard Rhodes.

Using traditional European hand finishing techniques, Rhodes produces stonework with adze, split face, lychee, pineapple, point stalk, sand rubbed, honed, satin, and natural finishes. The firm’s products include quoins, columns, fireplace mantels, fireboxes, moldings, retaining walls, fountains, garden walls, and pavers. “A lot of what we do is to blend antique and new together. People use the antique materials in the areas of highest impact because they’re so expensive, and then use the new materials in the less visible parts,” Rhodes says. 206.709.3000. www.rhodes.org