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I noticed a trend here at Breaktime toward more conversational content in the postings so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents.
While restoring the 1840 NC State Capitol’s ornamental plasterwork I had to remove a section of cornice that was severily damaged by water infiltration.
Once the area was removed I noticed something shiny laying back within the wall.
I pulled it out and discovered it to be a small flask with a dark purple material inside. Sitting next to this flask was a long (6 inch or so) wooden trough. The trough had a gouge going down the middle of it.
We had no idea what it was and took it to people in the Dept of History.
It turned out that what we had found was an ole chalk line the plasterers used to strike the lines for the decorative plasterwork!
The purple material was a concoction of blueberry and chalk. And the trough was running the line through the chalk.
Brian Ewing
Replies
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I had a client that found a body of a dead fetus when demolishing a convent. Not quite a treasure, quite the reverse.
Another client found a small rusty pistol (boot gun) and cartridges under a porch of a victorian being moved. Also found quite a stash of whiskey flask-type bottles behind a basement wall. Was able to notice that the tax seals on the neck had consecutive dates about a month apart for years. I found part of a newspaper from the 1940's also under the same building.
Under one old house I found a wheelbarrow that was trapped under the crawlspace when they put a new foundation in and forgot about it. It was wedged tight in the center of the house between the floor and the subsoil.
Have also found a collection of old rusty pots and pans in the attic where the roof used to leak.
I was at the gun shop in Knights Ferry, California a few months ago where a guy was showing a 1800's repeating rifle that was found recently inside a wall of a house being remodeled. It was in excellent shape.
*I found what computer programmers would call an "Easter Egg" in my 1930's house. Upon removing the medicine cabinet during wallpapering, I found the signatures of the men who had built the house and date of completion written on the framing. They are now all dead, but two have sons who are prominent GCs in the area.
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Dead fetus!!!!!!
AAAAAHHHH!!!!
whew!
I found an old coin laying on top of a column capital. It was a early indian head penny. The day is so worn out I can't see it. But it is amazing to me that it was there for so long!
Regarding the handwriting in old walls etc.....It's always fun to find them. I love to find little check marks, small formulas and what-not where panelling is to go and little things like that.
Brew
*I'm always looking for the big treasure, but so far it has eluded me. only thing I have found is some old news papers, love to read the old classifieds. When I built my house I sealed up a compleate sunday paper in a spot that I don,t expect to be remodeled for a long time. I just hope somebody enjoys finding it as much as I would.Rick Agro
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I'm restoring a house built in the 1890's (supposedly) in Stuttgart, AR. When I removed some old damaged wallpaper in one of the rooms, I found local newspapers covering a section of wall and they dated from September, 1907! Half of them were in English and half in German, our city founders. I plan to leave this section exposed somehow when I redo the room, possibly with something like a sheet of plexi-glass. Any ideas???
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After we recently bought this old farm house was originaly a boarding house for coal miners an old neighbor down the road told me a tale about how a young girl who worked as a cook for these miners were raped and then was stabbed to death. I didn't give much thought to the whole story and defintly didn't tell my wife, but.......One late night or very early morning of tearing down the plaster in the old dining room i came across an old fireplace poker nailed upside down on the side of one of the studs hmmmmm. my wife is still in the dark.
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Mostly, I have found old newspapers. The oldest was in an old adobe home, it was dated 1870. I have found old zippo lighters, 90 year old beer cans, many early 1900's buffalo nickels, even a copy of the title to the house.
My best find was in an adobe building (different than above) built when the missions were still king--this is CA. The treasure was two coins, dated 1795.
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A couple o' whoppers in here!
hoooo-weeeee!
*While removing our "Tenant Improvement/Display", a full sized (~15,000#) functional tiled Roman Tub at the end of our tenancy, I found my "pound-pound"/rubber mallet used to set my screeds. I had a sick feeling in my gut for you see, I had fired my apprentice acquired after I had built the bath for not keeping track of my most dearest and valued tool.I just want to say one thing to the World:I'm sorry Dad!!
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Worked in a kitchen from the early 50's and in very modest tear out of plaster and rock lathe i found a couple of empty pint bottles of whiskey. Left them with it home owner. Pretty sure that is why the outline of every piece of rock lathe is now visible.
Dug footings around a commercial building for 1920's and found that indeed times have not changed. We dug up what appeared to be Malox bottles. I guess it was no easier then to run a busiess than it is now. I kept one, a pretty blue bottle that escaped the backhoe.
I, on most jobs, sign my name to a piece of drywall or two, but as a commercial contractor I know that is at best good until the next tennent.
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A friend of mine was remodeling a prison in Maryland a few years back. He found a petrifide finger inside a automatic locking door to a cell. (creepy)
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A few years ago, we were building a new home on the shores of a northern Minnesota lake. The old house currently on the site was schduled for demolition. As the story goes, this old house was one of the retreats of Al Capone. It was a weird house. Had hidden compartments up where transom windows would normally be with pegs to hold a Tommy Gun ? A few days before the clients/owners were going to move into the completed new home, they where cleaning out the old house. The owner came running down the hill yelling to all of use working in the house that they had found a stash of money in the old laundry room. Oh yeah...we were really excited about that ....
turns out he found two dimes and a nickel behind the washing machine. They wern't even very old.
*Pops was a Local #3 electrician in the city(New York) his whole life and during his apprenticeship doing some demo work in an old apartment building he found a WWII german helmet , a sword of some sort and an old violin all buried in a plaster wall. He still has the helmet,I have the violin(Iplay piano) and the sword went to the other electrician who was there. Nick
*I was running some electrical wire in my house that got hung up on some unexpected blocking. . . there was none any where else, why there? I opened up the wall at the spot and sitting on the piece of blocking facing me was an empty cigarrette package. . . not an antique,(the house was built in 1950) although from a now defunct company. What occupied my thoughts afterwards was the likelihood that I would open up that precise spot.
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I did a whole house gut job on a 1830 farmhouse about 3 years ago and we found all kinds of stuff in the walls. The summer kitchen(alittle newer than the original structure) was filled with all kinds of magical elixer bottles sitting on top of rafters in the attic and in the walls. An old uncle of mine kept stopping at the job everyday to see what we had found(a bottle dealer) he got the lions share. Big bucks in those old bottles!
Now days, I always throw a pocketful of change in the wall, I'm sure it will thrill someone someday, and always sign my work with the date!
Built my folks a new house 2 years ago. Mom is a total clean nut so before I sealed up the winder steps, I swept all the debris under, along with a few banana peels and popcans . After completion(at Thanksgiving dinner)I told her that there was a mess under the steps( LOVE those mental timebombs).Payback for having to clean my room all the time!
..B.Ketter
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About 3yrs ago, while doing a restaurant kitchen renovation, I found a little bottle with a penny and a note inside.They where from a 7year old with a date and a name, the name looked familiar I'd seen it on a mail box up the road.When I went there you had to see the look on this 47 year olds face as he remembered he and his father placing the bottle inside the wall. It was worth the trip.Vince
*While pulling down some walls of vertical tounge and groove panel a few years ago I came across an old mortising chisel on one of the nogs. Still sharp and no rust. Must have been left there by the carpenter when he was building the wall about 80 years prior. Bet he was dripped off when he realised he had nailed his good chisel in the wall!!
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A few years back..we did the top to bottom renovation of a 3 story residence in San Francisco...on top of a basement....
The residence was built in late 20's...with prohibition...close by...
An italian family built the residence and lived in it until 1994...until my client..a count and countess from Belgium..purchased it...
The basement was a typical..SF...35' wide 80' deep...
Included were:
Built racks and incline planes..for wine barrells
Wine press
Chocks for barrels
Wine barrel bungs
Slope to drain floors for easy washout
A hole..strategically placed in the garage above...for dropping down the grapes from the trucks...
A large...trap door..with a large hook for block and tackle...which fed into the garage above...for bringing up the barrels...
And on the walls....pictures of the family...and the dandiest photo of Theodore Roosevelt..astride a horse..with a hunting party...with Half Dome in the background...
DN
What they did..was drive the trucks in..with grapes...drop them into the basement...turn them into wine...and then barrel the wine back out to the customers....all...inside the garage and basement..with no one the wiser....
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Several times in Western Massachusetts, while installing solar hot water systems in 1984-5, we'd find the original builders' signatures on the framing. Most often on the last collar tie in one end of the attic. From the 1700's through the early 1800's
Was sheetrocking a Victorian in San Francisco in 1983 and found the following inscription on the framing in a wall, "August 1933, this 'depression' has been going on for 4 years. Roosevelt is president - a good guy! George James and Sons rewire kitchen and dining room." So we added: "May 23, 1983. Ronald Regan is president - bad guy!. Sheetrocked front rooms and west exterior wall. Owen and David Thomas and brother-in-law John Stover." And sealed it back up so someone else could find it in another 50 years. -David
*Do any of you guys ever put little time capsules in a wall when you build? I have boxed in areas and stashed newspapers, baseball cards, business cards, Beer cans, Richard Petty farewell tour hotwheels cars are somewhere in my own house.-Rob
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We always..put a penny...in the fireplaces we build..of the year of construction...
We do time capsules..newspapers....goodies..
DN
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David,
This shouldn't be a political board, but I can't resist. I'm picturing someone opening up the walls another thirty or forty years from now and thinking , "They're both wrong."
*I shoot a quarter to the concrete somewhere. Preferably dated the year of the project.
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have encountered old coins and out of round marbles during demo of old stage stop in Central Point. Marbles were used with sling shot to stir up horses in corral for cowboy's selection process. The purported shash of gold eluded me, though.
*Then again, there's the possibility in the not too distant future that they'll be re-modeling the White House, and find a mysterious stain in a corner of the Oval Office, signed "Bill Clinton Was Here", But a REALLY GOOD GUY!! Right. You're in over your head, Junior. Light another Doobie and see if you can find something off the books.Buck
*When doing some reno's in my turn of the century home I removed the panelling in the back porch and found a pair of eyeglasses, in their case lying in between the studs. Kinda small, John Lennonish specs. I still wonder how long the guy hunted for them. Whenever I build/close up a wall I make a point of throwing in the current sports section, someday someone will appreciate it.
*Let's see...- My current set of wire cutters came from the attic of a small house built in 1949 - someone set them on top of a board and must have forgotten them - I found them when tearing out the ceiling, old but still sharp and shiny.- I found several issues of The Saturday Evening Post dated about 1902 in the attic of my house (built about 1899). They're in real good condition.- When I was tearing out some old kitchen cabinets, I found some cash, wrapped in aluminum foil and stuck in some nooks and crannies inside one cabinet.- When my brother was tearing off some old lath and plaster in his old house, he found a couple of letters dated December, 1856. They were from a woman in the mid-west, writing to her male cousin "Lute." I'm no expert on 1850's vernacular, but from what I read, there was a fair amount of messin' around going on, or at least being talked about!
*When I was in high school my dad and I added a room to our house at the time. If anyone ever wants to replace the carpet we installed, they are in for a "treat". My dad, being an artist, drew in the concrete slab before it set. Being single and irreverent, he drew some quite "blue" material. I kind of wish I could get a picture of the reactions...
*What are you talking about?Bill Clinton is probably the very best President we have ever had in this country!He never lied....just ask the members of the impeachment trial.He is as honest as the day is long.....Ooooppppsss ..... My wife is calling....Coming Monica!!!!LOL
*When refurbishing our 1820s log house I found some neat things and some not so neat things. There was a very unusual doll made of clay and springs, a local death invitation(?), a horse shoe which I left alone for good luck, a quill pen, lots of nut shells and a live snake.
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I have often found tools. Unfortunately, people who use good tools, are either more careful about loosing them or are better about recovering them.
I found a roll of quarters once in a very old house. Unfortunately, the quarters were not old. No silver. Only worth $10.
I found a bag of pot in a light fixture in a family owned trailer I was renovating in Mexico. My cousin is an electrician. That one's not too hard to figure out.
Once I had a job digging holes for power poles. If we didn't finish at the end of the day, we would cover the hole with a board cover and some dirt. One time the foreman returned to find a live skunk in a hole. Fortunately, it was in his job description, and not the laborers', to get skunks out of holes.
The best thing I found was a wine cellar. It was in my own house. A little calculation revealed that there was a space 5'h x 3'w x 6'd under a stair landing in a corner backed up against two concrete block walls. I cut a whole through a wall in the back of my closet, and there was a wine celler, in the middle of which was a cat's paw. (The tool, not the apendage of a former cat.) Unfortunately, the builders, who I presumed were the loosers of the cat's paw, had not seen fit to provide it with things which make a wine celler nice, like a door, wine racks, or most importantly, wine. It was up to me to provide those things, which I have.
*Mike's post reminded me of a renovation we did on an 1840's farm house. It used to be a part of one of the old Californio's ranchos. Excavating for some footings revealed a cistern underneath the kitchen. This was one way to have indoor plumbing.The cistern was about 25' deep by 8' wide and built of dry set local shale. Someone got the idea of going down to look for treasure. Among the various bottles(1840 pharmaceutical, 1900 snake oil, 1920 liquor) he found a huge number of children's metal toys. This was a puzzle. We figured some irrational child decided to dump his toys in the big hole underneath the kitchen sink.My wife collects old bottles and is quite the expert. She was able to tell us what the estimated value of the bottles was. The owner now has a bottle collection equal in value to a good portion of that construction project.
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I noticed a trend here at Breaktime toward more conversational content in the postings so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents.
While restoring the 1840 NC State Capitol's ornamental plasterwork I had to remove a section of cornice that was severily damaged by water infiltration.
Once the area was removed I noticed something shiny laying back within the wall.
I pulled it out and discovered it to be a small flask with a dark purple material inside. Sitting next to this flask was a long (6 inch or so) wooden trough. The trough had a gouge going down the middle of it.
We had no idea what it was and took it to people in the Dept of History.
It turned out that what we had found was an ole chalk line the plasterers used to strike the lines for the decorative plasterwork!
The purple material was a concoction of blueberry and chalk. And the trough was running the line through the chalk.
Brian Ewing
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Shortly after moving into my current house five years ago, I was still kicking myself for not making an issue of the broken concrete front steps at settlement. One day I was exploring a low closet built behind the kneewalls between two dormers. On a shelf just inside the door I found the original blueprints for the house, a 1942 brick cape. I sat on the floor using the light coming in through the door to scope out the prints. This find alone was enough to make my day. As I started to scooch my way out of the closet into the master bedroom, I noticed a small flourescent light fixture above the door with the cord wrapped up beside it, and a business size envelope tucked behind one corner. Inside the envelope I found five hundred dollars in tens and twenties. After my glee subsided a little, I realized that the bills were all over twelve years old, which meant that they were not likely left by the previous owner, but by the original owner of the house. I had already heard a lot about "Pete"--he was a woodworker, like me, and did a lot of work on the house. According to one neighbor, he died of a heart attack while digging a trench for the concrete walk that runs along one side of the house. So in all my remodeling adventures I take it easy, I check every nook and cranny exposed, and I thank Pete for leaving me that cash to pay for the steps that the last resident neglected to fix. I just relish the thought of the cash stashed there all those years not ten feet from the guy's head where he probably slept every night. Then again, maybe he had already found the mother lode that I still hope Pete left somewhere to be found.
Tony