Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Millionaire Trash Picker and his Crazy House

John Archer is a wealthy man whose hobby is salvage. He finds bits of antique treasure everywhere -- in trash put out on the street, in mansions that are being demolished, and in the Danvers State Hospital, an old insane asylum from which he recovered the cupola above and the doors below.


To make room for all his found treasures,he keeps making his house bigger, adding wings in every direction --"a pterodactyl of architectural detritus," Joyce Wadler called it. Above, the music room, which can seat 200. The fireplace, doors, chandelier and trim were all salvaged.

One of the bathrooms, with found tub and window.


Love that table. Lots more at the Times.

1 comment:

shubhadarshini said...

Good for you... wish I could save all those beautiful abandoned asylums: turn then into offices, apartments, film studios...