We have found some cool stuff in the walls as part of demolition.

Old newspapers used as insulation, some dating back to 1926.

A crow bar inside an interior wall

Vintage porn from the early 60's. Funny what was considered risque back then.

LazyPup - great story. Good pun, too - the lady "went ballistic" when you told her about the gun. Heehee.

Lisa91882

I graduated high school in 1965 so I can still vividly remember the codes of conduct and ethics of the day.

Funadmentally what was consider hard porn in the 60's is consider average sitcom dialogue today.

By Example, Jay Leno took over the tonight show from Johnny Carson when Carson retired, but do you know who preceeded Carson and what happened to him?

Jack Parr was the original M.C. on the tonight show and he was famous for doing silly stunts. One night in a conversation with a guest who was an actor, they were discussing how the guest had jumped into a pool of goopy mud for a movie stunt. During the discussion the guest said the mud felt like jello. Somehow the conversation then went to "I wonder what would happen if you jumped into a pool of jello?

A couple nights later they had a huge glass vat of jello sitting on the street outside the studio and Jack Parr was going to jump into it, but as he climbed out on the diving board the board gave way dumping him unexpectedly.

As he was falling he shouted "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOh chit"

Instantly the screen went black as the FCC blocked out the program and the next night Johnny Carson was on the show. It came out in the paper later that Jack Parr had been permanently barred from radio or TV broadcasting for broadcasting obscene material.

After fixing the big walkin fireplace we found opening for a beehive oven.we found a small bible stuck behind baseboard but it was rotten,a pocket knife with bone handle,a tag brass we found in brick wall not sure what it was.a metal wagon wheel rim in yard.I want to get out metal deyector soon.The talk was they found something on our property that pertained to civilwar.dont know what.Its dated 1700 our one deed shows a col.Himes had this property in 1822.

Gina M, by 'linimint' bottles do you mean they used to contain mostly alcohol for 'medicinal purposes'?

Yup. I suspect they were both filled with medicinal alcohol...one of the bottles says "no relief, no pay." :)

This weekend we were doing some sorting and found a few more fun things, including a parasol made from the most beautiful bronze silk taffeta. That had a note tucked in that said it was someone's grandmother's, who had it made from the same material that lined one of her wedding outfits. It's simply stunning.

We also found some little girl's treasure box. Several celluloid dolls and a few die-cut animal-themed Valentine's cards.

When tearing up the bathroom floor of our 1906 farmhouse, we found old newspapers sandwiched between the two layers of carpet and two layers of linoleum, dating from the 1920's to the 1950's. Since they were flat and pressed, they were in practically mint condition and were a very amusing read. (I still can't quite figure out WHY they were there, but they were neat nonetheless.)

cnvh, if the newspapers are thick enough they can provide a little insulation, a little padding, or both. In WWII, the Army was unprepared to find their soldiers suddenly in a winter situation in Europe, with no winter clothes on hand, and many used newspaper to line their boots for warmth. This trend continues today with homeless people using newspapers as insulation on the ground and as covers during cold weather.

Hey, chuckr30, next spring when the roses near your house bloom, take lots of photos of the flowers, leaves, stems, and plant, and note whether the bushes have just one large flush of flowers or whether they rebloom. Then go on over to the the GardenWeb (THS's sister site) and check out the Rose ID forum - we might be able to help you identify them. Heirloom roses - especially strongly scented ones - are prized, living "collectibles."

Hmm... I'd have thought the other TWO layers of linoleum and TWO layers of carpet OVER a layer of tin would have been insulation enough!! :)

My roses are a light pink color, with buds being an orange color. They send lots of runners into the lawn. Apparently the roses have been there many years (house built 1954) as some of the runners I dug up are 1/4" thick! When a runner root sprouts a stem in the lawn I just mow over it. Roses have been ignored for probably 20+ years and are doing just fine. That's unusual because in Michigan we can go 6-8 weeks in summer with no rain.

chuckr30 - Michigan roses must be really healthy stock. I dug up a small wild rose in the UP and planted at home. (western suburb of Chicago) Gorgeous when it blooms! It is very aggresive to say the least. Luckily I planted it on a slope I hate to mow.

That must have been something alot of people did,newspapers under floor we found them too.
We also found bottles I collect perfume bottles,one day my husband found old bottles, brought in a perfume bottle with glass top attatched he found in woods outside.

Well, chuckr30, those roses sound really interesting...Fragrant, extremely hardy, at least 50 years old, pink with orange buds ... are the flowers large, or small? Do they bloom in clusters or singly? Do the canes grow long, like you could train them to climb on a trellis or other structure?

Sorry to ask so many questions - I probably should wait til next summer and bug you about them then! But I know a lot of people who garden in northern areas that would really appreciate roses like yours. Perhaps you should pot up the suckers (runners) instead of mowing them!

See the "My roses" thread I will create shortly in the roses forum.

Change in plans. "My roses" thread is in Antique Roses. See link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Antique Roses forum

I found a box of old photos on a closet shelf. Looked like nothing special, I just chucked them. The prior owner did not give us her forwarding address, and had instructed the real estate office not to tell it. So I didn't feel bad throwing out the photos. Oh and there's a penny stuck in one of the closet doors. I can't read the date. I tried to pry it out but it's really stuck. My sister bought a farm house with a few acres, including a pond. You can see there's a car at the bottom of the pond. She's leaving it where it is. Remember how Jimmy Hoffa disappeared some 30 years ago?

I found a family tree pinned to the stair wall in the basement, no way to trace the family to current members. Also, an old double-breasted dark blue pinstripe suit from the '30s...it fit me almost like it was made for me--if that isn't a sign that I should buy the house, I don't know what is!

I remodeled the kitchen--removing seventies formica and wood cabinets and fluorescent lights--and found some of the antique baseboard and ALL the original cabinet doors in the garage! I built cabinets to fit them, and they are once again gracing my kitchen.

Also, while digging in the yard, I found some of the scrap from the original building site, bits of slate, and other things, including some crockery shards.

My house is a 'foursquare'--I hate that term!--built in 1907, and also has some ancient roses with it...I've since added more!

Very neat Columbusguy, rebuilding the original kitchen cabinets.

Columbusguy - What do you dislike about the word foursquare? It's just discriptive meaning: Having four equal sides and four right angles; square.

Columbusguy, you and chuckr30 are getting me all fired up with your talk of old roses ... just how "ancient" are the ones you found at your house?

Columbusguy, that is just too freaky about that suit! Reminds me of how when my parents bought an old house not far from where she grew up, my mom found old photos somewhere in a closet of her grandfather as a young man. She thinks the PO must've dated him as a young woman probably back in the early 20's.

Jannie, can you tell what kind of car it is? That would make an interesting story, I'm sure!

Wow, some neat old stuff! We haven't found anything good in this house yet, but we did in the last house, built in 1926. We tore out the plaster ceiling in the kitchen to do some wiring and lighting, so anything that had fallen through the floorboards in the small bedroom above came to light. We decided a boy grew up in that room. At first we were finding little wooden game pieces, marbles, pencils and dominos -- then an (empty) tin of "Saf-T-Way" condoms. We display the latter in the medicine cabinet in the powder room -- to provide a chuckle for those who are looking where they shouldn't . . .

In taking down the nasty pink-painted plywood paneling from the exterior wall of my bathroom in my c. 1930 house, discovered that in the next layer underneath someone had stuffed rolled-up newspapers under the window frame to keep out the drafts. Not surprised, you could see right through to the snow outside! The newspapers are from 1955 so quite interesting, especially the ads. I need to iron them to flatten them out a bit.

Kevin

Several years ago, my parents remodeled the "newer" part of the house I grew up it. This section dated to the turn of the century. I came home from my summer job one day and was handed old clothing and told to change out of my work clothes. Turns out I'd been elected to run the gas lines for the new kitchen, being young, slim, and sound of back.

So, I dropped down into the crawl space and crawled over to where Dad wanted the lines. I put them in place and then promptly flopped onto my back. A century of dust finely filtered through floorboards and many layers of linoleum and carpet makes a mighty fine cushion, though a rather dingy one. Giving that up, I figured that while I was down there with a flashlight, I may as well poke around.

There were two old brick-lined dry wells. That was intriguing, but not nearly as intriguing as the discarded tombstones tossed in and around the drywells! They all had . . . typos, for lack of a better word. Very odd. I left them there, as I wasn't about to try to lug slab of rock out while shimmying on my belly.

That same remodel revealed a long abandoned beehive between two studs on what had once been an outer wall. It was at least four feet in height and fairly deep, with multiple layers, hanging like drapery. We cut it down and I took it to the naturalist at the state park where I was working.

jocelyn

An dusty getaway suitcase with lingerie (pink lacy pignoir set!) tucked into a basement crevice behind the old coal chute.

The PO had a safe, of sorts, installed in the ground of the half-finished basement of my 1910 brick bungalow. The painter found it while painting my kitchen cabinets and he forced it open - nothing inside, alas. The PO were Greek restaurant owners. Maybe they didn't believe in banks?

In the huge attic of this house was a very worn, large carpet that I gave to one of the movers. Also found a yellow prom dress from the 40's or 50's in pretty bad condition.

well working on the old T&P wiring I found perched on one of the beams in the attic, a Schrade cut co sheep's head pocket knife. they stopped making my model in about 1902, and the house was built in 1900, so who knows, it may have been here since the house was first wired. it is in amazing shape for any steel found unprotected in Charlotte NC. The stag handle has almost no blemishes and the blade is still sharp! I love the knife, and I try to use it whenever I do any electrical in my house.
John

Wow, that pocketknife sounds pretty neat!!!

I'm trying to repair a section of plaster ceiling, and after reading this thread, I rooted around up there today and found the bottom half of a dolly's outfit. I also found very small shredded sections of newspaper. I was able to find an ad for a movie, and searched it in IMDB. It was put up there in 1941 (according to the movie website) but the house was built in 1901.

Wish I could find something cooler than that though. Maybe if we take up the attic floorboards to install batting, we might see more!

We have a 1930's farmhouse bought from the original family that built it. They were Norwegian, hardworking and thrifty folks... we found old newspapers that had fallen down from the attic with news of Seattle area Norwegian social happenings in the late 30's. We found lots of rat chewed corn cobs (ewwwww!) An old doll with doll clothes in a tin (gave it to the woman we bought it from)
Lastly, a friend who was helping us when we first started renovating found a cleverly hidden bottle of good whiskey in a "fake" panel in a closet... with just a bit left in it. We asked what he did with it..."I drank it!" He said with a large smile...and then went back to work tearing apart the 1970's bathroom. Maybe those folks weren't as conservative as they appeared ! :)

I found a pretty old and very sad handwritten Christmas card from the wife to the husband, in a long letter telling him how she forgave him for having an affair and all about their love etc. Very sad. The card was underneath the old carpeting in the upstairs bedroom.

As far as treasures, nothing big yet, even though our house is 145 years old....but maybe when my hubby starts his plan of creating an access big enough for a person to get to the attic space....right now there is only a 1x2-foot opening in the tiny closet in the bedroom. Nothing found in the basement yet either, but we do have some great original Carnegie steel beams down there along the low ceiling.

Lots of stuff through the years. It's an old farm house and translated that means anything previous inhabitants tossed, ended up on the property somewhere.

Old three tined forks with bone handles. An 1861 castor oil bottle. Horse shoes. Many, many hand forged nails. The old wooden roof shakes under the newer slate. Cistern pump. Fireplace crane parts in the kitchen hearth. Coins from the 1800s. Various medicine bottles. China doll parts. An old pottery salt shaker. Wooden dowels used to hold beams together. Old plough parts and axe heads.

Did you know it was pretty common practise to toss junk into the outhouse hole? Sometimes years later when you excavate on old homesteads you find a cache unearthed with lots of broken pottery and bottles. Guess what you probably hit? LOL.

Just a few little oddments: an old tin of tooth powder, a stove burner cover so rusted that it now looks like a found art object, and two little porcelain things - one appears to be a pull like you'd find on the end of a chain, and the other is a little fat porcelain cylinder - a counterweight perhaps. (Parts of a toilet, maybe?) Also a mysterious bone in the foundation, and big piles of old shells buried in the backyard (maybe they buried old oyster shells for fertilizer).
My favorite discoveries about this house have been intangible: a search through old newspaper archives revealed some great dirt on the first owner, who was a politician.

Building a new home in 1996 on the site of a demolished 1950 home, we discovered bricks that predated the prior building. Those bricks, combined with the pungent odour of manure, indicated that we were building on an old barnyard. Farmers typically used that type of rough brick to provide their stock footing in the mud.

Oyster shells are used to raise the pH of the soil if it is too acidic. I use them in my aquariums for the same reason. Oyster shells do not really provide any fertilzer otherwise.

Oh, what haven't we found yet? Our home was first owned by Mormon pioneers then by a large Mormon family who lived through the Depression. There are "saved" things jammed everywhere. In fact, I have a date with our contractor on Wednesday to take down the roof of the old pioneer granary (attached to the "modern" garage in the front) - because a corner of the ceiling fell down this weekend, and we discovered the rafters are stuffed with old furniture and doors!

Just a sampling of what we've found so far:
Photographs
Newspapers
Halloween mask cut from an early cereal box
WWI Valentines
Light fixtures
Original wood floors, complete with handmade nails
Marbles
Broken pottery and intact medicine bottles
Bottle caps
Old clothes stuck in the sealed-off transom windows (insulation)
Wooden skis
Wrought iron candle stands
Vintage beveled glass medicine cabinet
Victorian hardware
Plows
2 foot honeycombed wasp's nest
Dead mice
2 antique farm sinks
Hand tools and VERY early power tools (full shop in the granary)
So much barnwood we could build another barn!
1950's gas station double swing glass doors with cigarette stickers on them

And in the yard:
60 linear feet of 80 year old grapevines
75 linear feet of 70-year-old tea rose bushes with rootstocks like basketballs - never get black spot or aphids, bloom huge, smell phenomenal!

Can't wait to clean out the rest of the garage...

We found a safe buried in our front yard. A BIG safe - about the size of a small refrigerator. There was nothing inside (the hinges had rusted off.) It was made in 1911. My town is infamous for being the bootleg capital of our area (it was said the cows gave spiked milk) so we think this is a souvenir of that era. It's still there - WAY too heavy to move.

Also found a beautiful ivory handled knife - right next to the safe.

I was helping my sister remodel an abandoned brick farmhouse that was built in the 1840s. In the attic I found newspapers, letters, and seed catalogues dating back to the 1850s.

My sister in law found an old family Bible in her father's house after he had passed away. On the inside front cover, her great grandfather had written that he swore that he would not touch a drop of alcohol for 6 months. It was witnessed and signed by his wife. He must have done something really bad...

We have a house built in 1923. When the cedar shakes were removed, the contracter called me outside to show me the signature and date of the completion- under one of the front windows on the sheathing- it was signed and dated Feb. 17, 1923( or whatever the original date of Lincolns birthday, ashamed to say I forgot.)
The neighborhood was built on the acreage owned by one of the Carrolls- Declaration of Indepence signers- Castle Thunder ,the name of that home is long gone. That accounts for the small ceramic colonial doll body- no arms or legs and some pottery shards I found when rototilling for a garden. too far away from the original site to be the outhouse for the mansion and no outbuildings were around here.
also in no particular order:
a 1920s era Creamtop spoon that was used to get the cream out of the top of the bottle.
big shooter marble- unevenly made jade green.
An E-Z Teether teething ring- from the front garden.
various condiment bottles from bricked in area under porch,
old newspapers
an empty coke can from the 70's- DH claims it must have been his brothers!
Lazypup- do you have a pic of the flintlock- My anscestors were in Wilbraham and Springfield and have been documented as Minutemen- they fought at Lexington and Concord. I know I can look up a flintlock photo on line- but it would be cool to see one hidden away by one of their compatriots.
Sue

My first house in PA, near a railyard, the main cross beam supporting the floors was a length of steel railroad track. Talk about swiping the paper clips from work.

My second house had termites. yippee.

My third, while repairing broken lath and plaster upstairs revealed the whole wall, indeed the whole house, was a log structure. The gaps between the logs were chinked with reddish mud typical of the area, pieces of broken pottery, a squirrels nest, sticks and other valuables. The original deed was 1755. It was neat to see the marks of the adze that squared the old logs and wonder about the family who lived there and the little fingers that pushed the mud between the logs. I also discovered an outhouse which was later converted to a porch. I should have dug around in the dirt and see what may have been lost down the hole but no time for it... The outside was totally covered with asbestos siding. Still is, I think.

My fourth house, an 1888 Queen Anne Victorian had a colony of bats in the attics. And the chimneys. Not a few bats either. Hundreds and hundreds. Bats are protected. You don't gas the place and kill them or you are in deep shinola. They can squeeze thru a hole the size of a dime so don't think you can keep them out. Not with three attics and five chimneys. Bat boxes are an idea but they don't work real well if the bats are happy where they are. My Dad gave me the solution. Run a wire and some boxes up there and put on some lights. Works with squirrels too. They like it dark, eventually they left voluntarily for darker pastures. Hate to evict but it was them, or my marriage.
Johnnymo

well so far ive found some old journals for a general store in the 1870's and 80's and a cash journal. some old coffee tins with paper coins in them.alot of old doll clothes and some type of display dolls. alot of newspapers dated 1906-56 and a pocketwatch between the walls of a bedroom and bathroom. some old tobacco tins and some old seedpacks of tomatoes and some burlap wrapped garlic lol. thats about it so far.the old franklin stove in the basement i still use occasionally mostly for decoration it says on the metal id plate made in 1922 in Pa.

Such interesting finds! In my basement I found an old bone or ivory carved rose pendant or window shade pull - I don't know what it is or how old it is. Also an old stove was in the basement - it was like a box with a door on it. I got rid of it because I am cramped for space but later at some historical place I was one on it for diplay. Before that, I wasn't sure what it had been! lol. Also found an old Family Circle magazine from about 1959 sitting on top of one of the heating ducts. Found an old matchbook from Worlds Fair from about 1961 or 1961, I forgot. Under the kitchen sink. And an old milk bottle cap (paper) under the sink. We used to have the old bathroom sink in the basement too, but I finally ditched that too - because I do not like sinks where you have a separate faucets or cold and hot water! Oh, and there's part of a newspaper from the 20s in a crawlspace under the house (which is accessible by a little door). I just left the newspaper there! Have dug up old toys in the yard, like little cars and a little airplane. Nothing too great, like the great rifle find! My house is about 120 years old.

Hi,
I haven't found much neat stuff in my own house other than a few bottles and some trellis parts (which I found after I had built the replacements, but which confirmed my hunch) But in working on other people's houses I have made some interesting finds. I worked on a narrow house whose ground floor had been commercial for 150 years. (built in 1795) When I removed the window sills, which were original, I found a shoebox full of cool stuff. Hundreds of coins, pins, buttons, clay pipe fragments, all kinds of debris. We learned it had been a tailor's, a shoemaker's and a confectioner's at times. The owner got the findings.
The more recent project consisted or removing the baseboards in a 1750's house (same village). This was the first time they had ever been removed, so we found some more very neat stuff, including two Colonial Virginian Pennies with King George's portrait on them, ca 1756! Other things: an Ivory toothbrush handle, and what I have called a Tea Token- an early advertising premium for a brand of tea. It was gilt brass with their name and crest on the front and a glass mirror on the back. Clearly they were giving this with the ladies in mind. And lots of clay pipe fragments. The owner proudly displays these finds at tours and open house events.
Casey

Tearing down a ceiling in NJ, we found a really old looking pair of wooden skis. They seemed in good shape for wooden skis, I guess.

When I posted the first time, I forgot the coolest find for me,was the paper airplane that was behind the built in cabinets. It was a little boys airplane with little drawings all over it. Well, my husband grew up in that house and it was one that he had made and lost umpteen years ago, he remembers that he was into paper airplanes one summer, that makes it about 47 years old. not valuable but fun! Sue

Well, this has gone on a while, but I just got here so I'll post. First off, I grew up in a very large Empire period stone house in the midwest.

As kids we found a few things, but the most interesting feature of that house is that it was supposedly a part of the underground railroad (the house is next to the mississippi on the Illinois side). In the full basement is a passage that has been bricked up. No one knows what is behind there and now that I'm a contractor I often think of going back there before my parents sell the house to see what is behind.

I've found in my work:

- An old town welfare receipt from the thirties in the upstairs of an old rural cape.
- Old bottles and a can of 'new colored' blue paint, opened by a can opener, probably from the early century.
- a baseball card (not rare) from the fifties under a tub we removed.
- a 60's era soft porn slide under a built cabinet
- various old coins

I now live in an 1890 gothic owned by three generations of the same family. In it my kids have found: two old umbrellas, one with a sterling handle, a local stable advertising calendar from 1896, tons of old newspapers dating from the 1890's, a toy gun from the fifties, a victorian era small Swedish bible tucked in the floor boards upstairs, a geography book printed in 1820 (talks of the south as a place of slave plantations). The receipt for siding the house in the thirties, a forties ear coca-cola cooler,

Probably the coolest find was when my son was fourteen years old on his birthday, which lands on Memorial Day, found a noisemaker, an old flag and a newspaper tucked in the wall studs in the loft of the adjoining barn. The newspaper was dated exactly one hundred years to the day he found them --- with talk of the Memorial Day parade, etc, which we assume the noisemaker and the flag came from. He brought them to me and didn't even notice that detail until I looked at the date. I was pretty blown away.

A friend at the time who liked to think she had 'special' clairvoyance, said that it was a 'sign' that the spirits in the house liked us.

Just bought my first place, 1895 (real old for my town). I have a whole old garage full of stuff, including (thankfully) the panel door to the bathroom, the only one in the house that has been replaced. It shall now be restored.

I had a can opener in the kitchen called "Maid of Honor." There was an old meat grinder under the sink, branded "CLIMAX." I kid you not!

The weirdest thing among MANY weird tinkering by the PO was a metal table, mounted on the chassis of an old lawnmower. I guess to make a cart with wheels. It is the most impractical and clunky thing I have ever seen. But it is not really surprising considering the weird things the guy did.

My BF keeps wondering why there are so many newspapers under the house. And so much broken glass. I assume that's because this was before garbage pickup :)

Our home was built in 1868 and was originally a school house. When remodeling/rewiring we found writing on the walls behind the wallboard. It has since been covered up again, but we took pictures.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Bird Mummy!

That creepy little bugger was waiting for us inside the kitchen walls. Also in the kitchen walls: a work release dated Jan 6, 1905 for "use of team" from a plastering company, the transom above the back door was simply covered over, glad to find that.

Upstairs, we found a bank book from the original owner ($68,000 opening deposit in 1933!!), an old marble, "congratulations on your baby boy" cards, playing cards, football cards, several un-fired .22 rounds, a bucket of most of the missing tiles from the front porch...

It's been an interesting 7 months.

MPEDrummer

One rehabilitation project was an 1840 house built by Quaker family. It is now the club house for a golf course. The owner/client found a circa 1840 McGuffey reader in a wall. I wonder if a child was trying to avoid school work.

It is exciting to find treasures from the past in a building. Twice when work was done on our 1892 house, I tucked a collection of things away for someone else to find. Each contained a floor plan, current pictures of the house, name of the architect/designer for the project and names of the workmen, a little information about us, and of course the date.