Reclaimed Cleveland

Mission

Reclaimed Cleveland is a retail and custom furnishings company which re-purposes local materials that would otherwise be bound for disposal. The goal of the company is to serve Cleveland’s progression into a sustainable 21st century, while preserving its history in heirloom quality furniture.

Need

The City of Cleveland’s mid-twentieth century population was nearly 1 million people. In the last fifty years the local population has shrunk by 2/3, because of sprawl to suburban areas and migration out of the area due to loss of manufacturing jobs. Because of this ~15,000 homes (some estimates claim more) stand vacant and slated for demolition in the next 5 to 10 years. Millions of tons of materials from these demolitions are considered garbage and sent to area landfills each year.

Upcycle

Our sources for materials are mainly condemned Cleveland area structures, but also include urban trees cut down in the city to make way for utilities and land use, retail storefront renovation or any other local materials going to waste that our designers can manipulate for re-use. Most of the homes slated for demolition in Cleveland are nearly 100 years old (some even older) and were built with old growth lumber that is as dense as it is beautiful. Reclaimed Cleveland is leading the effort to salvage lumber from local structures, giving it a new life as well-designed home furnishings and accessories. We are also working with a local non-profit, Towards Employment, to train ex-offenders in home salvage, giving them skills and an entryway into the construction trades.

Provenance

All Reclaimed Cleveland products are stamped with the address of the structure from which the lumber was reclaimed. Images and information in respect to each structure can be found on the “Salvages” page of our website. Although we make multiples of our pieces, each one is unique and traceable to its origin.