Cross Creek Hills Farms opens to public buyers

Items in the store include antique statuary, copper lanterns and stained glass windows.

Owner Mike Hill and wife Jeanne Waters-Hill, who owns Touché Designs, keep the busy store running.

Waters-Hill said she has seen an increase in the use of architectural salvage in building and remodeling projects.

“It’s everywhere now,” she said. “If you’re building something and can build in history, wouldn’t you? You can use an item that is crafted by someone who really cared about what they were crafting. That’s harder to find today.”

Hill, who began working on the business eight years ago, now works in the store full time.

Contrary to popular belief, using the old materials is a better value.

“Usually the value is there in recycling materials,” Waters-Hill said.

The bulk of the store’s customer base is still primarily builders.

Andy Fisher, who owns Imagine That Homes, buys materials from Cross Creek to incorporate into the million-dollar homes he builds.

“I’ve used his brick pavers from St. Louis that have been used in streets. They make great bricks,” Fisher said. “I also use old beams that have come out of warehouses. It’s mostly for cosmetic curb appeal in a house. There’s the look, but also it’s better than using new brick. The quality is better and it gives a unique appearance. The old beams add ambience to houses. It gives an Old World look.”

Fisher, who builds a lot of European, country French and English-style homes, said that the antique bricks and beams enhance the appearance of his projects.

Using the old heavy timbers has its advantages, Waters-Hill said.

“New timbers will crack and shrink or twist. The old ones have already done what they’re going to do. We take the disfigured timbers and slice those up for flooring,” she said.

On the hunt

The couple said that the best-selling items for the store are brick and timbers, pavers and Carthage stone, which can be hard to find.

But many of the products the store sells aren’t easy to come by, Hill said.

“I’d say that beams, used lumber, bricks, granite cobblestones and iron rails are the hardest things to provide,” he said. “We do get requests from people from time to time. I only have what I can find and what I can afford. One thing I have trouble finding that people are asking for is old chimney pots.”

Finding the items is Hill’s favorite part of his work.

“I just get in my truck,” he said. “I do phone calling and networking with other places, and when I find something, I take off.”

Favorite finds

Hill counts the Morton Salt Mansion as his most unusual find so far.

“He just bought the entire Morton Salt Mansion in Chicago,” Waters-Hill said. “It was built in 1929 on a big elk ranch. It’s a 21-room mansion that will have to come down because the real estate it sits on is more valuable than the house. It includes street lamps, fountains and moldings. Mike has the blueprints, so someone could buy the entire house if they want to. You could literally take it apart and built it anew with new plumbing and wiring.”

He plans to package the home and market it nationwide.

One of the most expensive items Hill has sold to date is a $12,000 set of front doors.

Hill declined to provide revenues for the business, but he said Cross Creek – and the use of architectural salvage – is growing.

“It’s popular now for builders and homeowners to find something unique and build around it,” Waters-Hill added. “People like the story and the history behind it.”

And that’s something the couple can relate to. They built their own home with old bricks and beams, and that project inspired them to open Cross Creek Hills Architectural Artifacts & Salvage.

“Our home has a story,” said Waters-Hill. “We know where the brick came from. Mike found some old slate and we used it on our basement floor.”

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