Ricca’s Architectural Sales

The good news is that this place has an extensive selection of authentic NOLA home replacement parts to renovate and maintain your historic property. The bad news is this is a graveyard of parts and pieces of historic homes we’ve lost. The prices are also quite eye opening as many of the items are quite more expensive than you would think. I fear such prices will further the looting of many of our abandoned historic homes and further deteriorate them so they become even less likely to be renovated. Entire blocks of historic neighborhoods were torn down in the process of building the new Medical Center of Louisiana on 78 acres so apparently there are forces that would like us to look like strip mall everywhere else America at work. I mourn the passing of so much of NOLA’s history and charm but this is probably still the best place to get historically appropriate replacements and repairs to your historic NOLA architecture.

You could be here for days. Tons of great finds for all tastes, definitely worth the stop!

Ricca’s is a great place. The prices are reasonable considering most items and cleaned and stripped — that’s a lot of work, folks. If you’ve ever tried to strip a 100 year old door of 25 layers of paint and dirt you will appreciate the almost perfectly clean condition of most of the items. It is almost impossible to get them that clean yourself with a scraper and paint stripper. I was looking for a set of pocket doors and recieved some very expert advice and attention from Julie — and I wasn’t even looking to buy that day. Ricca’s has very helpful and expert staff! I’m calling Julie out by name because she was delightfully helpful.

I am undecided about this place for several reasons.
1: I love the idea and the purpose behind the business. to find historic/​old pieces of furniture needed for your older house.
2. I do not like however, the prices. while I can appreciate that some of the items must be valuable based on simply being available, I also believe that those of us trying to preserve the sanctuary of our homes should not be penalized and be forced to pay some exorbitant prices to do so.
3. many of the doors we were looking at (yes, a random 34“x88″ door) had no prices. this makes me leery in ANY type of business, because I cannot see the price; thus I am forced to rely solely on what the employee tells me.
Definitely a great place to check out — it has some really great stuff. However, be ready to drop some serious bling for things. Trying to put back together the pieces I feel should be something accessible to NOLA residents to help keep the city as beautiful as possible.

Salvaged lighting, doors, moldings, fireplaces and other architectural bits. They have catalogs to order reproduction items too. All wood is stripped and ready to paint. All prices are on the high end. Friendly staff.

Reasons to go to Ricca’s:
You’re trying to match an historic door in your house because the bozos who renovated it have one door mismatched from the rest.
You’re looking to replace 19^th century hardware to make your transoms actually work.
You really need some pocket doors, columns, mantle, or other random piece.
Have fun & wear closed toe shoes.