I'm doing a story for "This Old House" magazine on unusual discoveries people have made when they moved into or restored an old house. So far people have told me about finding a Prohibition-era secret compartment with liquor bottles, a horse's skull (inside a plaster wall), a child's pocket watch, a 19th century photograph of a man (found behind a fireplace mantle) who looked exactly like the current owner, and so on. The more unusual the better, please.

I have a family owned salvage company called Long Lost Lumber in Texas and several years back we, as a family were deconstructing a home and in the the soffit area my son found razors, toothbrushes and old Shiek Condom tin. Not unusal finds but we all had a great laugh when my son acted out what the old man must have looked like when he sleepy eyed walked into his bathroom one morning and said " What happen to my toothbrush?" - It was a true pack rat stash!
Been doing this for 10 years and we have found lots of cool old junk but we are still waiting for that one big find!
Have any questions -please feel free to call me at 512-923-2650 and ask for Pam

I found sagging floors, a broken furnace, and 'interesting.. and somewhat scary' things in the crawl space.. Does that count??


We did find an old box full of numbered Norman Rockwell lithos .. that was kind of cool....

Well, we found a ton of things...it's a strange story. We're attempting to catalog them on the What On Earth section of our houseblog

I know I stumbled upon this article two years + later...but I had to reply.

I hope you receive this.

I bought some land with an old abandoned bunk house (moved to the property after WW2 from a local air force base). Of course, it turned out to be full (the attic) of so many things. Many of the items are similar to what you have posted in your photos. A page from the past. I have spent the last three+ months researching all the items and am now in opening a webstore through GOANTIQUES.COM and my store is called Suzanne's Buhach.

It has been an experience I will never forget. There will be a book after the shop closes. My garage looks like yours! It's fascinating and a work in progress.

Suzanne

We found that holes in our roof were patched -- under ten layers of roll roof material - with tin cigarette boxes (such as "Camel"). Sadly, they were badly rusted.

I am in the process of landmarking my Sears home (the Wellington), and I found what I believe to be an old light chandelier- all the parts look like they are there- but it was not all in one piece. The metal pieces are all stamped 1923. I am waiting for more treasures