Forty-five thousand square feet of salvaged New Orleans architecture fills a warehouse at 1824 Felicity Street. The Bank Architectural Antiques operates as part museum, part salvage yard, part time capsule of demolished and renovated mansions. This is where cypress doors, cast-iron fences, marble mantels, and cypress beams from 200-year-old houses end up when buildings get torn down or gutted.
The Bank opened in 1998 when owner Paul Maassen started salvaging architectural elements from condemned buildings. He saved materials before demolition crews destroyed them. The collection grew as contractors, demolition companies, and homeowners brought salvaged materials. Now the warehouse holds items from hundreds of properties spanning 1830s-1950s construction.
Walking through The Bank means navigating narrow aisles stacked floor-to-ceiling with doors, shutters, columns, brackets, mantels, gates, and hardware. The organization system is loose. Doors cluster in one section, mantels in another, but cross-contamination happens. Finding specific items requires patience and willingness to dig. That’s part of the experience…