Hidden Behind The Walls

Erin Holohan Haskell

This Englishman found a secret passageway behind a bookcase in his 500-year-old house. A NY couple found over 66 bottles of prohibition-era whiskey. Then there's this couple in Illinois that found a still-working, circa-1904 lightbulb.

Have you ever found anything hidden behind the walls of an old home?

Or have you ever hidden anything? Your secret is safe with us.

SlamDunk

Nothing that exciting. A pack of tobacco with a tax stamp from 1895, miscellaneous tools. But sometimes I put something back. Where we found the tobacco pack while insulating the top floor of our house, I double wrapped this magazine which was current at the time:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312996792627

with Bezos, Musk & Branson, I'd say the cover was right.

Erin Holohan Haskell

That's like a little time capsule, @SlamDunk. Nice!

JakeCK

Man look at how fresh and crisp that shuttle looked back in 81'. Back when our country could still come together despite our differences to do cool $h!t.

SlamDunk

We were excited to find the tobacco pack. It was like a treasure. Even though it turned to dust, we still wondered about the craftsman who chucked it in there.

If the house still stands in 2081, the person who finds the magazine will think how primitive we were and how antiquated space travel was!

Think about it, a reusable space ship that landed like a plane was the height of technology. Today, private citizens are building reusable rockets that return to the launch pad and land VERTICALLY. Only forty years have gone by!

We still do cool stuff.

Erin Holohan Haskell

If you ever get to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, it's well worth the trip.

KC_Jones

1. About 20 whiskey bottles, 5 of which still had labels which dated it to prohibition era. One still had a prescription label attached, but that disintegrated unfortunately.
2. Glass bottle for Hydrogen Peroxide, label is intact, but fell off, kept both.
3. Embossed glass medicine bottle, the embossing was for a local pharmacy long since gone
4. Lip balm of sorts in a metal tin, yes there was still some in there, no I didn't use it.
3. Rolling papers, smoking....?
4. Oyster shells, both halves, so someone was eating in the attic, with all that whiskey
5. Box for an outlet box from when the house was electrified originally.

I'm sure I forgot some things, it's always an adventure when I gut a room.

I also think the history of the house is interesting. The caretaker for the mansion across the street lived in my house for some period. He was held in high regard as there is street named after him not far from my house.

PC7060

Erin Holohan Haskell said:

If you ever get to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, it's well worth the trip.

I live nearby, very cool place. Can get right up to exhibits

SlamDunk

Erin Holohan Haskell said:

If you ever get to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, it's well worth the trip.

On my bucket list, maybe this Spring. I started out as an aircraft mechanic in 1987 so I should pay homage to my roots.

Erin Holohan Haskell

@KC_Jones, that's quite a find. Oysters and bootleg whiskey in the attic?

@SlamDunk, @PC7060 is right. You're going to love it.

KC_Jones

PC7060 said:

Erin Holohan Haskell said:

If you ever get to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, it's well worth the trip.

I live nearby, very cool place. Can get right up to exhibits

I went there not long after it opened, it's amazing.

Paul Fredricks_3

Found a skeleton in our wall, with a medallion around it's neck that said "Hide and seek champion - 1934"

PC7060

During the renovation of my 1920's house we had all kinds of thing is in wall and under floors. Whisky/Gin bottles, small medicate bottles, box for a the old school K&T splice black tape, lots of old rusty "safety" razor blades in bathroom walls along with a old wrecking bar.

Funny thing is my modern blue wrecking bar disappeared during the same renovations. What the house gives, the house takes!

JakeCK

Found a dime from 1917 during my kitchen remodel some years ago. Also found an old roll of shrink wrap from the 60's when I demo'd some old shelves in my basement.



As cool as what Elon and Jeff are doing... idk... The first and second richest guys in the world building rockets so other rich people can take a minutes long joy ride to orbit doesn't feel the same as our government pushing the boundaries of scientific and technological achievements. And 40 years between the shuttle and now is kind of depressing considering we went from bouncing along the beach at kitty hawk to putting a man on the moon in what 65 years? 

mjstraw

When we rebuilt our front porch last year, we left a 2020 quarter, dime, nickel and penny inside the enclosed banister/railing.

JakeCK

mjstraw said:

When we rebuilt our front porch last year, we left a 2020 quarter, dime, nickel and penny inside the enclosed banister/railing.

Who ever demos that is going to think back to 2020 and say f* that year...

mattmia2

I found large pieces of plate glass in the wall of my kitchen when I tore the original 1924 drywall off to insulate and make a big patchwork of drywall pieces a couple big pieces. I wasn't sure if someone broke one of the attic windows and just shoved the pieces down in the open top of the wall or if they put it there to get rid of it when they replaced the original attic gable windows with some 1970's thermopane aluminum windows.

I also found instructions on the back of the 1924 drywall.

PC7060

The sheet music behind the old cabinets was pretty neat. 

JakeCK

mattmia2 said:

I found large pieces of plate glass in the wall of my kitchen when I tore the original 1924 drywall off to insulate and make a big patchwork of drywall pieces a couple big pieces. I wasn't sure if someone broke one of the attic windows and just shoved the pieces down in the open top of the wall or if they put it there to get rid of it when they replaced the original attic gable windows with some 1970's thermopane aluminum windows. I also found instructions on the back of the 1924 drywall.

Was it goodwall sheet plaster? It was a product sold by sears in the 20's and was the earliest version of drywall. It was normally finished with a brown coat and then finish coat of plaster.

mattmia2

If i recall it was a brand name like us gypsum. The subdivision appears to have been built by the family that owned a local lumber yard. It has little chunks in it which appear to be wood and sand. The softer fibrous chunks burn.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Not a wall. But a house we lived in back in the early 60s had a basement but under the LR was a dirt crawl space.

My old man decided one summer that my brother and I (mostly me as my brother was about 7 or 8 and I was about 10-11) were going to spend the summer digging the crawl space out to make the cellar larger'

We were told to do 25 wheelbarrows a day. Of course the house could have fallen in on top of us.

We were making progress for a few weeks until we found a car buried in the crawl space.

Job abandoned

KC_Jones

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Not a wall. But a house we lived in back in the early 60s had a basement but under the LR was a dirt crawl space. My old man decided one summer that my brother and I (mostly me as my brother was about 7 or 8 and I was about 10-11) were going to spend the summer digging the crawl space out to make the cellar larger' We were told to do 25 wheelbarrows a day. Of course the house could have fallen in on top of us. We were making progress for a few weeks until we found a car buried in the crawl space. Job abandoned

In my fathers youth he was really into cars, started with plastic model building and when he got his license he got into drag racing, and eventually had a custom header business until he got married.

His first car was a 1950 Chevy with a 6 cylinder, he put a new engine in it and the old one sat in his parents backyard for months.  His mother finally gave him a ultimatum, get rid of it or he’s kicked out of the house.  So, he dug a hole between the house and sidewalk and pushed it into the hole.  She planted roses there and they thrived.  

PC7060

@EBEBRATT-Ed - sure hope that car was empty!!!

JUGHNE

This isn't really a behind the walls find, rather hidden in the pockets.

Last Veteran's Day, the history teacher wanted to bring some military memorabilia from our museum to the school for kids to view.
We have items from just about every war, friend and foe, since the civil war, (as a southern relative calls it "The war of Northern aggression...I had not heard that phrase before that...and am surprised it is still used in the south....but I digress)

One item he wanted was a "great coat", heavy wool coat that hung below your knees, my guess was WW1 vintage.
So before letting that go, I thought to check the pockets.
Buried deep inside was a packaged condom.
Actually had to explain to another board member what it was.
Of course to prevent the spread of disease....
So perhaps this coat had seen some European action.

I removed the packet and placed it in a safe place in the Museum....but can't remember where.
Well maybe someday, in another 100 years it might be found...a true museum item.

Erin Holohan Haskell

We have an unfinished room in our basement with circa-1947 issues of the Washington Evening Star on the ceiling. Here's a job ad for G.I. Girl Musicians to spend the month of August in NYC.

PC7060

Erin Holohan Haskell said:

We have an unfinished room in our basement with circa-1947 issues of the Washington Evening Star on the ceiling. Here's a job ad for G.I. Girl Musicians to spend the month of August in NYC.

Perfect, I’ve got the music for it!

Erin Holohan Haskell

Good one, @PC7060!

HVACNUT

Years ago we were doing a new A/C installation. System in the unfinished basement. 
I was pulling down a fiberglass batt in the ceiling joists when something fell out.
I looked down off the ladder, and laying there in pristine condition was a 50's Playboy magazine. I don't remember the exact year, but it wasn't the one with Marylin or any of the other so called bombshells. 
The homeowner was new so it wasn't his. One of the kids took it home. 

FStephenMasek

Inside a wall in a building at the old MCAS El Toro base (Lucille Bremer)

JUGHNE

I have posted about this item before.

This was found in the crawl space of the Museum mentioned above.
Considered a side arm heater for a storage tank.
Came with 3 different gas orifices'....NG...LP...or manufactured gas.

Note the trademark on the manual gas valve.
I would guess this predates it from before the mid 1940's.

You just turn on the gas and light the burner.
No safeties at all, other than common sense.

May have been used when this building was a hospital from 1928 thru 1940's.

Larry Weingarten

Hi @JUGHNE , You got it right about no safeties. Tanks used to blow up pretty often when people lit the sidearm heater, forgot and went shopping or whatever. They would come home to a blowed up house! The gas valve was made by Crane, who used that logo before WW 2.

Yours, Larry

Jakek

Not as impressive as other's finds, but I did discover this new, unsent embossed holiday greeting card in my attic, complete with the original price note of 5¢ papercliped to the back with an envelope. I'm guessing it's 1945 +/- 5 years. (Also proof the "War on Christmas" extends generations.)



During the early Pandemic shutdown we used the time to build and install some built-in bookshelves. Before installing them we signed the plaster wall and wrote "Installed during COVID-19". I wonder if the person to take them down will get the reference.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, Working for a friend, I was taking out sheetrock in a bathroom and found a couple of containers filled with silver dollars, sitting on the fire blocking. No access was built to the stash, so it must have been a forgotten secret. Of course my friend was happy! On another job, I was redoing a roof and under it a bunch of printing plates from the local newspaper had been nailed up to the the rafters, probably for whatever insulation they could give. They were from the early forties and had nice old ads.

Yours, Larry

veteransteamhvac

I found a pack of these when I was opening up a wall in the kitchen. Pretty cool bit of local St. Louis memorabilia.