What Have You Found When Doing Demolition?

L. B. Condulet

When busting out old walls it's very nice to find a newspaper from 30 years ago, that's happened a few times. Once the elderly owner of a house died and the new owners wanted to spruce up the electrical, I crawled under the house and found hundreds of bottles of vintage wine. Once in an attic I found a Victrola crank up phonograph.

It's great to find old phone books, I found an old Los Angeles phone book that had numbers with 6 digits. I love old, historical finds.

Once I found a box full of dynamite, that was pretty spooky.

POOLMANinCT

w/o caps the tnt is safe

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......Less with the jaw & More with the paw.....

Celtic

I found a paperback ****o book(not magazine) once...from the 40's/50's

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firemike

I have found the usual newspapers. One had an ad for a 1947 Chrysler Town & Country for something like $2400. Working on the High school we found some old Coke cans, had to be from when the school was built in the 1950's as they were waaaaaay back where no man had gone since they built the place.

Also found an old business-sized check book from the 1940's. It had all the cancelled checks stapled to the stubs, the checks were written out to clothing suppliers, the amounts we anywhere from a dollar-something to fourteen-something, big money back then I guess. Gave that to the homeowner as the house had been in her family since way before then so I know it had to belong to one of her relatives.

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-Mike-

KentWhitten

When I demo'd our kitchen (real old farm house) under the toe kick was about 30 years of rat poop and two dead rats next to a d-con box!

we had a local town way, way north in Maine that just came out of 5 digit numbers.

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If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

Custom Cabinetry - Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Kennebunkport, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Cumberland, Ogunquit, Maine

Salmon Falls Cabinetry

oldfrt

On an old farm house,under the bathroom linoleum,were newspapers dating back to just when prohabition had ended.
Unfortunately for the members of the Italian American Womens Club in one city,a day too late.
They had gotten raided for running a Speakeasy.

I've also found old coins,baseball cards,love letters,lots of marbles,and old whiskey bottles,which probably belonged to the original builder.

Chris G

Lots of old newspapers. Oldest was 1915 I think. A raccoon skull. I think it was a raccoon...

A few months ago a local contractor near me found the remains of a baby that died shortly after birth around 1920:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories

Chazbe

About the coolest thing was a antique tin type racing car that was in a wall. It was small enough to fit into a 35mm film canister. Sold that little sucker on Ebay for $16.00

AbeBarker

I demoed my dining room and found a complete newspaper wrapped up dating from 1938. I keep it in my reading area in my basement and browse through it here and there. A lot of people got beat up that day back in 38 in Boston.

send_it_all

I found these in a wall I removed a couple years ago. The wall was added by some diy'ers and I took it down and found these sitting on the blocking...

Attached Images

  

kevjob

found old coke bottles newspapers from the 30 and 40 also found a water line with a plastic bag duct taped over a small leak, the bag was about full

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Kevin
Basement Finishing Highlands Ranch Colorado
Littleton Colorado, Basement Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling Denver

bujaly

What's with the nickel? and the beer cans? Can't really make out anything..

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send_it_all

I have to assume the nickle was brand new when they built the wall, so as to let one know when it was built...If I remember correctly it was 81 or so. The beer cans were just sitting there empty with notes on them that say " Tony drank this" and "Mike drank this"

kevjob

wait till you open the ceiling and find the other 224 beer cans

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Kevin
Basement Finishing Highlands Ranch Colorado
Littleton Colorado, Basement Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling Denver

send_it_all

Believe me...I spent PLENTY of time up there...no beer cans.

Driftwood

Found an old I LIKE IKE PIN . Small mill stone for cracking corn , You cracker!!

35 years ago tore down My sisters kitchen ceiling. My Nephew's bedroom
was above. He had stashed all his teachers notes ,for Mom ,down a knot hole.
These were constant notes for Mom to come to school ! He was always in trouble, like Me. We still laugh on this one.

A W Smith

I found some old newspapers from thirties and forties with car ads. and local stories. Newspapers were used under linoleum in those days to keep the wood planks from telegraphing through the linoleum. it was quite common back then. They were too fragile to save, Other than old cast medicine bottles and soda bottles nothing remarkable. I remember about 8 years ago reading an article about a skeleton found in a chimney somewhere down south. Apparently it was a gift shop in some historic house. The chimney was undergoing restoration when they found it. Turns out it was a known local bugler who disappeared some years before. they suspect he was trying to gain entry through the chimney to burglarize the gift shop and got stuck. They identified him from his wallet.

EDIT
I found the chimney guy I posted about above
he was stuck in a Natchez Mississippi chimney for 15 years
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/...chimney/?print

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Al Smith
http://www.awsmith.com

Michaeljp86

About 10 miles from here these people just bought a old house and heard about the people who lived there long ago would drop money through a hole in the wall. They opened a wall and it was full of old money, the oldest was back to 1799. They said the value was $250,000 and I think they paid like 50 or 60 k for the place.

Al Capone had alot of mansions around here, Id like to know whats hid in there.

oldfrt

Looking at February 9,1942 Daily news I found.

FDR was in to have his appendix out,Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan were starring in "Kings Row",you could buy Jitterbug Pants for $2.95,radio phonograph $37.95,rooms at the Y were.75cents,and the Japs were !/2 mile from Singapore.

Ya gotta love it!

Mr. Wms

The usual dirty rusted razor blades from the bathroom mirror.