I had a friend who purchased a 3 unit rowhome in a row of identical rowhomes in Pittsburgh. His neighbor invited him over and the layout of the entire house was the same except there was an extra stairway and attic room in this house. Given that they were seemingly identical houses he figured he probably had the same room in his house.
So he cut out a hole in the wall with a reciprocating saw, jumped into it, and walked straight up a stairway into a semi furnished attic filled with antique furniture. They had been living there for a year with no idea it was there. It felt like something out of a movie
My wife (then fiancee) and I found something similar in the attic of an apartment building in Cincinnati. Didn't have to go through a wall and it wasn't locked, but once inside the attic had low ceilings and looked untouched since the 1920s. I'm sure people had been up there but it was full of antiques and had what looked like original wallpaper everywhere. Very old rotary light switches too.
My young friend on a construction crew, was renovating a building in a small Iowa town. The place had been retail on the main floor, but had closed 20 years before and never redeveloped. The 2nd floor was the original downtown developer's office space, the 3rd was defunct Masonic lodge with peepholes, railings, bell hooks all still in place.
But the 4th floor was an apartment, closed and untouched for 50 years. The widow who had last lived there, was evacuated by the fire department when the stairwell collapsed (and put in the poor home). So her apartment was untouched from that day.
The boxes in the pantry were amazing - old stick-figure marketing characters from the late 1950's. Soap powder, cleaning supplies, tissues etc. all brands I didn't recognize.
The floor and walls were grey and faded, but behind and under the refrigerator they were still fresh and proved to be wild art-deco patterns. The refrigerator itself was weird - the shelves were lazy-susan style that revolved.
I was struck by how spartan it all was. She had just 2 forks, 2 spoons etc in the kitchen drawer. Just a couple of plates and bowls in the cupboard. A wardrobe with 2 or three changes of clothes. And that was about it. Not so much consumerism back then I guess!
Anyway it's all gone now. But it was cool to tour it (I had driven down to give him a lift, his truck had gone in a ditch and he offered to show me around). Had to climb external construction scaffolding to get up there, go in through the fire escape door. But it was worth the look!
A lot of these old homes people would make smaller (drop ceilings and things like that) to make them cheaper to heat. One theory was that they just weren't using it and didn't feel like heating it.
Or maybe during some renovation someone didn't feel like dealing with it.
I friend of mine worked in law enforcement. Her specialty was documenting crime scenes. Gruesome stuff. Think architectural as-built drawings with every drop of blood rendered.
She absolutely delighted in finding cubby holes, hiding places, stashes. Often missed during initial investigations.
A friend of mine bought an old house in a medieval city in Europe. She wanted to make it a hotel, starting renovating and found an antique mosaic on the walls.
She informed the city, archeologists came in and shut the place for a year.
She was curious but could not do anything.
When she finally got her place back, she discovered an artezian spring in the basement but did not tell anybody and had a great source of water.
I'm sure if she shared the news about the "artezian" (artisanal?) spring it would have added a bunch of fun for the archeologists, the city, historians, family who are/were related to the house (if they found out) and more, while maybe not being so fun for your entrepreneur friend.
I've heard that not reporting such finds in Greece, Italy, and perhaps other countries is very common. The reason is that your business or residence is essentially confiscated or shutdown until preservationists or archaeologists take what they need.
Imagine if we didn't have these policies. The Parthenon would be a hotel for dogs, the Colosseum a parking lot, and the Rosetta Stone some rich guys footrest.
This should be seen as a risk for anyone buying properties this old, just like any other risk in business. I wouldn't be surprised if there's insurance for this.
"It's a risk" means there's profit in removing the risk.
As far as insurance goes, it just reduces the variance. Folks who buy the insurance will take short-cuts elsewhere because money spent one place is money that can't be spent another.
And, if you're tempted to respond with "but it wouldn't cost much", my response is "then there's no reason why you shouldn't pay that cost."
And yes, I have a 120 year-old house that I'm keeping as authentic as reasonable. (I do want electricity and central heat.)
When you are in a medieval city every building is old.
The problem here is that the place was shut down for a year with maybe two weeks of work. This is European bureaucracy, not preservation of historic artefacts.
I know a few Central Coast of California agricultural landowners who have Chumash bedrock mortars on their property, some with pestles still in them. They are unbelievably cool IMHO — when you are around them it's easy to imagine Chumash women working away grinding acorn flour and chatting as their children played under the oak trees however many years ago.
The landowners mostly stay quiet for two reasons: One, who knows what the county, state, and the Chumash bands will want to do this time? Second (and far more importantly), if officials are informed it's essentially certain the locations will eventually leak and open the sites up to thieves and vandals. My understanding is that the sites have been made available to researchers under a covenant to not reveal the locations.
To the second point, one only need refer to the tragedy of Painted Rock:
A 50-foot-long, 9-foot-high, 1885 circus poster was discovered in 2015 when a bar in Durand, Wisconsin opened a wall to expand the bar into an adjacent property [1]. After methodically removing the wall, the bar owners enlisted a team of experts to clean and restore the poster. The poster is the main attraction in the Orton Room, the bar's banquet room named in honor of Miles Orton, the owner and manager of the Great Anglo-American Circus and a performer featured on the poster [2].
22 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 63.3 ms ] threadSo he cut out a hole in the wall with a reciprocating saw, jumped into it, and walked straight up a stairway into a semi furnished attic filled with antique furniture. They had been living there for a year with no idea it was there. It felt like something out of a movie
But the 4th floor was an apartment, closed and untouched for 50 years. The widow who had last lived there, was evacuated by the fire department when the stairwell collapsed (and put in the poor home). So her apartment was untouched from that day.
The boxes in the pantry were amazing - old stick-figure marketing characters from the late 1950's. Soap powder, cleaning supplies, tissues etc. all brands I didn't recognize.
The floor and walls were grey and faded, but behind and under the refrigerator they were still fresh and proved to be wild art-deco patterns. The refrigerator itself was weird - the shelves were lazy-susan style that revolved.
I was struck by how spartan it all was. She had just 2 forks, 2 spoons etc in the kitchen drawer. Just a couple of plates and bowls in the cupboard. A wardrobe with 2 or three changes of clothes. And that was about it. Not so much consumerism back then I guess!
Anyway it's all gone now. But it was cool to tour it (I had driven down to give him a lift, his truck had gone in a ditch and he offered to show me around). Had to climb external construction scaffolding to get up there, go in through the fire escape door. But it was worth the look!
Or maybe during some renovation someone didn't feel like dealing with it.
She absolutely delighted in finding cubby holes, hiding places, stashes. Often missed during initial investigations.
She informed the city, archeologists came in and shut the place for a year.
She was curious but could not do anything.
When she finally got her place back, she discovered an artezian spring in the basement but did not tell anybody and had a great source of water.
Such discoveries are not always fun.
I'm sure if she shared the news about the "artezian" (artisanal?) spring it would have added a bunch of fun for the archeologists, the city, historians, family who are/were related to the house (if they found out) and more, while maybe not being so fun for your entrepreneur friend.
Artesian: it refers to groundwater under pressure.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/artesian-well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artesian_aquifer
This should be seen as a risk for anyone buying properties this old, just like any other risk in business. I wouldn't be surprised if there's insurance for this.
As far as insurance goes, it just reduces the variance. Folks who buy the insurance will take short-cuts elsewhere because money spent one place is money that can't be spent another.
And, if you're tempted to respond with "but it wouldn't cost much", my response is "then there's no reason why you shouldn't pay that cost."
And yes, I have a 120 year-old house that I'm keeping as authentic as reasonable. (I do want electricity and central heat.)
What have you preserved with your money?
The problem here is that the place was shut down for a year with maybe two weeks of work. This is European bureaucracy, not preservation of historic artefacts.
The landowners mostly stay quiet for two reasons: One, who knows what the county, state, and the Chumash bands will want to do this time? Second (and far more importantly), if officials are informed it's essentially certain the locations will eventually leak and open the sites up to thieves and vandals. My understanding is that the sites have been made available to researchers under a covenant to not reveal the locations.
To the second point, one only need refer to the tragedy of Painted Rock:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Rock_(San_Luis_Obispo_...
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/huge-19th-century-...
[2] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2...