SARASOTA - You've heard the saying: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."  Well, there is plenty of treasure to find at Sarasota Architectural Salvage.  The business is preserving the past and our planet at the same time.

"So this is just an example if you're doing a 1,000 square foot or 2,000 square foot house, we have enough of this salvaged flooring on hand to do this project."

New College graduate Jesse White majored in Environmental Science, and he's hoping his business - Sarasota Architectural Salvage - will help protect *our* environment.  "When it comes to salvage, specifically architectural salvage, we have building materials that are coming from buildings in the states where they might have gone to the landfill.  And so we're saving these elements from having to go to landfill."

While preserving flooring, doors, stained glass windows and oodles of other old treasures, White's business is creating new keepsakes.  "So this is a great example that has been totally re-purposed.  You have a mantel, we have old beadboard...probably a salvaged mirror.  Friend made this...a place for wine glasses.  The entire piece is made up of architectural elements that were salvaged and repurposed to make a fully functional piece."

Outside are thousands of pieces of wrought iron in all shapes and sizes, a huge fountain and anything else you could imagine.

Inside, just hanging around waiting for a new home: chairs and huge ornate chandeliers from an old theater up north.

But for a piece of Suncoast history, nothing beats a table made from shutters and other bits from the old John Ringling Towers.  "Shawn, who's our store manager and who's a woodworker, formed this table out of the shutters and these painted, stenciled boards that came from the ceiling of the old John Ringling Hotel lobby.  So it's a fabulous piece.  Very functional, very comfortable and its also just steeped in this local history, so that's very exciting."

And the proceeds made on that piece of history will go to preserve it.  It will benefit the Friends of the Sarasota County History Center...and that's a win-win.

And you can check out the amazing finds at Sarasota Architectural Salvage Monday through Saturday from 9 to 5, on Central Avenue in Sarasota just north of 10th Street.