From The Lens g r e at wo r k s pac e s
Reclaiming the Past Third generation keeps Ricca’s Architectural Sales going and growing by Melanie Warner Spencer photos by Sara Essex Bradley
Reclaimed lumber, including an impressive number of cypress boards of every size,
stretch the width of the sprawling warehouse at Ricca’s Architectural Sales in Mid-City, along with rows and rows of doors, windows and shutters. In the front, every manner of hardware — think doorknobs, pulls and hinges — is arranged and displayed in the main warehouse, which has also served as a flea market, but most notably in the 1930s was a space to build lifeboats and life jackets for LCVPs — otherwise known as Higgins boats —used in World War II for amphibious landings. “It’s a constant battle to keep it organized and to also keep up with repurposing the material, cleaning it and bringing it back,” says owner Roland Ricca Jr., 31, who inherited the business in 2004 at age 17 after his father, Roland Ricca Sr., died. In 1957, Roland Ricca Jr.’s grandfather, Peter Angelo Ricca, started the store at a space on Broad and Toulouse. Eventually it moved to Iris, then finally landed in its current location at 511 Soloman St., where it has grown to include three warehouses, a mill shop and a brickyard about a block away. There are also three additional storage warehouses.
Roland Ricca Jr. is the third-generation owner of Ricca’s Architectural Sales and Ricca’s Demolishing Corp., in Mid-City. The business was started in 1957 by Roland Ricca Jr.’s grandfather, Peter Angelo Ricca, and later run by Ricca Jr.’s father.
78 / Biz New Orleans / may 2018