Savannah Galleries and the Rug Shop in DC

In 1968, Danny Kaminsky was a law student in Washington DC who walked past the same rug shop every day on his way to class.

One afternoon he went in.

He wasn’t shopping. He wanted to look. The owners let him, then told him to come back anytime, and he did, over and over, and his love of rugs began.

Not long after, he brought that here.

By the time he opened the gallery in 1968, the collecting had been going about ten years already. So this was never a business idea he had one day. That interest grew into a collection large enough to need a building of its own.

Why this one stayed with me

I love how Danny took an interest in rugs and decided to follow it. What I love most is that in a world where everything is so disposable, he takes the quality of these rugs and puts love and attention back into them, restores them so that they have new life. I have a special affinity for how things that once were are now again.

I met him on a Tuesday while he and my friend Meredith were bringing an old rug back. Watching somebody work with that much attention is its own kind of thing. You understand quickly that the price of a hand knotted rug is not about the object. It is about the hours.

Restoring rugs for historic houses

The reasoning was simple. Savannah is full of old houses with old floors and rooms in proportions nobody builds anymore. Those rooms want rugs that were made by hand, and those rugs need somebody who knows how to keep them alive.

He built the reputation quietly, one rug at a time. Decades on, you will still find him working on them himself, restoring them with the care they are owed rather than the speed a schedule would prefer.

From rugs to antiques

The shop widened into antiques along the way. In the early years he would have containers shipped in. These days the pieces come through estates and consignments, and he pulls from a collection he has been building since before the gallery opened in 1968.

The reach surprised me. He recently sold a bust to clients in Manila and Singapore, and other pieces have gone to Dubai. A good part of his current clientele is international.

That is a Savannah story if there ever was one. A shop in a port city, doing what it’s been doing for over two centuries. Shipping to the other side of the world.

Why this matters

I’ve been in a lot of historic homes. You can tell apart the ones where somebody paid attention to the details.

If you buy an older house here, you are going to need people. Someone for plaster. Someone for heart pine. Someone for the rug that came with the house and has been walked on since the Truman administration.

Savannah has those people, and they are still practicing. That is one of the underrated arguments for buying something with age on it here rather than somewhere newer.

If you go

Savannah Galleries
30 East Bryan Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm, or by appointment
(912) 232-1234

Hours as published. Small shops shift them, so call ahead if you are making a trip of it.

Ask Danny how he got into it. You will get the DC story, and it is worth hearing in his own words.

What inspires me

All of it, every thread of it, started with a walk past a shop window in DC.

Not bad for a law student who walked in one day to look at a few rugs.

I’m Nikki Gergacs, a Realtor here in Savannah, and the Historic District is where I spend a lot of my days. If you are thinking about an older home here and want to know what you would be signing up for, that is a conversation I enjoy. Call anytime.

This is part of Anchors & Awnings, an ongoing series about the small businesses that hold a place together.

— Nik · 912-378-3427

Your Next Pearl Awaits.

Next Move Real Estate · Licensed in Georgia