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pan
Citizen
Username: Pan
Post Number: 59
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 5:38 pm: | 
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When we dug our basement slab to lay down some vaporproofing we discovered a rotting wooden staircase that led 30 feet below to a sub-basement with stone walls like a catacomb. In it there were shelves four stacks up lined up with eight sarcophaguses. In the five of them there were the mummies of an Egyptian nobleman, probably a pharao, with his wife and their two sons and one daughter, wrapped in silk with golden paraphernalia all around them. In the other three there were what looked like their pets: one cat, one dog, and a crocodile.
We hold all our parties in the sub-basement; our guests love the view and the mildew smell.
Dr. Anketanhen, the famous egyptologist, concluded that the Egyptians had, at some point in history, conquered Maplewood. |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 3224
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 9:41 pm: |
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LilRedCorvette
Citizen
Username: Lilredcorvette
Post Number: 130
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 5:41 pm: |
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While renovating my bathroom I found an old newspaper from July 1940 stuck between my bathtub and the studs. I assume it was put there as my bathroom was being built. I poured over the help wanted section of the classified, just for kicks. In the domestic help available, available nannies and housekeepers were advertising themselves according to race. There was a black section and white section of available people, with the blacks asking and getting less pay.
We've come a long way baby... |
John Roberts
Citizen
Username: Undertaxed
Post Number: 65
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2004 - 8:40 pm: |
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We have a bunch of license plates nailed to our garage wall starting from 1938. We added our out of state old ones to the mural. |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 3799
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 2:01 pm: |
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We took a wall down this week and put it back up. Before sealing it, I dropped in a printout of a recent email, in hopes that someone can discover it in a few decades. The email was about meeting up for dinner with local friends. |
jdh118
Citizen
Username: Jdh118
Post Number: 25
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, September 17, 2004 - 3:25 am: |
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:Need Help with Most Recent Find:
Hi, most recently found a photo, in the attic buried in the dust between the beams. It's a photo of a young woman, in a white blouse, on a piece of metal about 1'x1'; the other side appears to be copper.
Does anyone have any suggustions on how I might be able to have it dated and/or compare it with school photos from years gone by? I'd imagine it was someone who lived in the house, or given its location, maybe a secret sweetheart, but copper? No idea if that means like 1900 or what!
The house is from the mid 1800's and we've found tons of stuff, newspapers, pulled out an entire paper beind used as insulation in the basement, dated Dec 2, 1900. Then found a Christian Herald dated 1895. Bottles, bottles, everywhere. Liquor from near and far, local spring water, caster oil from S.Orange. All from about 1905
Best find was in the library though, a photo of the house with all its original ornamentation from about 1910. The goal is to restore it all, though one project at a time!
Thanks for any help on the photo!
You can reach me at JDHX118@aol if you'd like to respond privately.
John |
Phil
Supporter
Username: Barleyrooty
Post Number: 857
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, January 3, 2005 - 9:48 am: |
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Took up a wooden platform for the washer and dryer in the basement. Found a penny from 1911 right after the house was built and another from 1954 (I guess that's when the platform was put in). |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1519
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 8:45 pm: |
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John - google "daguerrotype" - it was an old method of chemically etching photographs on metal. I forget when it was popular - may be late 1800s early 1900s? |
bets
Supporter
Username: Bets
Post Number: 962
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 8:47 pm: |
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There was a house sale at my childhood home on Ralston Ave. I went for nostalgia and met the owner, who gave me an extended tour. He told me about a find in the garage - about 5,000 beer cans/bottles my older brothers and friends had "recycled" in the walls. |
Derek
Citizen
Username: Derek
Post Number: 84
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 11:41 pm: |
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Behind the big mirror in our living room (which I removed out of curiosity), my wife and I found a small, heart-shaped Hallmark card with a bumblebee on it with a small inscription penned on the back. Couldn't tell the date but tempted to send to Hallmark to determine when it was printed. Somehow the color of the card was not faded but fragile nevertheless.
In our garage, I found an axe  |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5120
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 11:50 pm: |
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That reminds me.
The previous owner left a beer ad poster on the wall in the attic. The attic was used as a bedroom. We're using it as a family room.
I ripped down the poster months after moving in. Behind it was a wood board. The poster and board were just stapled to the wall. Behind them was a huge hole in the wall, about six inches wide and two feet long. Behind the hole was the soffit and the outside world. Grr!
My carpenter patched up the hole with drywall and whatever that stuff is to smooth out seams. I told him I had fantasies of shoving the previous owner's head through the new place, to form a new hole like the old one. (That really shocked my carpenter, who is also my friend.)
I later noticed that my carpenter had written on the patch "Place head here ---->" because it's not painted over yet.
OK, I probably shouldn't have written this story and revealed this side of myself. Sorry. |
Derek
Citizen
Username: Derek
Post Number: 88
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 12:05 am: |
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My fantasy is finding a treasure map hidden in one of the walls in the house and hopefully that treasure would be in my house as well 
Or maybe I'm having a flashback of a "What's Happenin'" episode. |
Tom Kerns
Citizen
Username: Tom_kerns
Post Number: 23
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - 3:56 pm: |
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When we bought our money pit (built in 1865) in Jersey City we agreed to move in "as is". While it took months to get rid of everything, we found some interesting items such as WW I flying goggles (the previous owner's father was a flyer in that war). But what was really cool was a box of matches we found under the kitchen stove that commemorated A&P supermarkets 50th anniversary. That was 1984 when A&P was advertising it's 125th anniversary. (Believe me it was probably that long since it had been cleaned) |
mayflower2258
Citizen
Username: Mayflower2258
Post Number: 84
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - 5:00 pm: |
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Tom,
Are you related to Patty Kerns?
If so, I knew her back in the day...in the 60's. |
Mrs T
Citizen
Username: Netjack
Post Number: 25
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, February 3, 2005 - 6:41 pm: |
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Attached to my 15 yr old boiler was a permit from the village for the initial installation of an oil burner and oil tank in the 40's. I have the original claw foot tub, relocated to the 3rd floor when they modernized in the 50's and a soapstone utility tub in the basement. It's beautiful!! I mentioned using it in the kitchen ,when we redo, to my hubby and he looked like I had sprouted a second head. I still think it would be great! |
happyman
Citizen
Username: Happyman
Post Number: 234
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, February 4, 2005 - 9:38 am: |
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An Africa spear found in the rafters of our Maplewood home and 50+ year old soda cans in the wall of a bathroom.
All we could envision was the movie "The God's Must Be Crazy."  |
Tom Kerns
Citizen
Username: Tom_kerns
Post Number: 24
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Friday, February 4, 2005 - 1:01 pm: |
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mayflower
To be honest I'm not sure. We had very little contact with my Dad's side of the family, but if she lived in Jersey City there is a very good chance she is related. I have many cousins in JC that I have never met.
Tom |
Bobkat
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 7491
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, February 4, 2005 - 1:31 pm: |
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I think it used to be common for workmen to leave newspapers, notes and bottles in the walls. When we did an addition we found several rolled up copies of the Orange paper, a daily then, during demolition. A friend in Brooklyn found an absolutely beautiful brass bound folding carpenters ruler in his house, although I am sure that wasn't left by mistake. |
mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 4598
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, February 4, 2005 - 4:14 pm: |
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This morning in my house, I found a little pile of poop OUTSIDE the litter box.
Kitty's 18 and gets confused. |
mayflower2258
Citizen
Username: Mayflower2258
Post Number: 85
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, February 5, 2005 - 10:44 am: |
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tom,
the patty that i knew lived on e. clark place in south orange, near mountain station.
sounds like you are not related.
oh well
mayfl. |
juju's petals
Citizen
Username: Jujus_petals
Post Number: 30
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 7:32 pm: |
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Previous owners left behind a small Virgin Mary icon behind the sink in a corner. Seemed like bad luck to remove it, but odd to leave it on display. It's still there behind a larger decorative italian tile. |
Camnol
Citizen
Username: Camnol
Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 3:53 pm: |
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We moved to Maplewood in December. After reading this thread I decided to go poke around in the attic and I found---love letters! They were down in the space where the roof and floorboards meet, like they had fallen out of a box.
There were about 12 letters dated from 1939 to 1941, and from the research I had done at the library, I knew they had to belong to the woman who was the second owner of our house. She was writing to her future husband, who lived in Canada. They purchased the house in 1943.
Through luck and the kindness of Bill at the pet store, I was able to get in touch with the woman's daughter. The daughter lives in Seattle now, but grew up in "my" house. I mailed her the letters and she mailed me pictures she had of the house--mostly when she was a child in the late 40s. Told me the story of how her parents met, what the kitchen looked like originally... It was a fun experience! |
finnegan
Supporter
Username: Finnegan
Post Number: 202
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 25, 2005 - 9:11 am: |
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Camnol:
What a wonderful story! It was so very kind of you to track down the old owner's daughter and send to her her own parents' love letters.
This has got to be one of the best MOL stories of all time! |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2178
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, March 26, 2005 - 12:29 pm: |
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A horseshoe, old hand-made nails, clamshells everywhere (used in making lime mortar to fill in between rocks in the foundation); bottles and pieces of glass; mostly stuff in the yard. The walls have horsehair, especially in the attic, woven into the mortar.
Of course, we're not in Maplewood.
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tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2179
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, March 26, 2005 - 12:54 pm: |
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the town I live in, about 1900. Now, we have trees and farms on those hills. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2180
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, March 26, 2005 - 1:09 pm: |
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another view:
 |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2181
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, March 26, 2005 - 4:51 pm: |
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Sorry, I know it's thread drift. |
snowmom
Citizen
Username: Snowmom
Post Number: 217
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 27, 2005 - 10:43 pm: |
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Ok Tulip, where do you live? |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2186
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 28, 2005 - 7:14 am: |
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I live in a little village in Pohatcong Township called Finesville, named after an early settler. It can sometimes be found even on a Rand McNally, because it prospered in the eighteenth century with pottery and grist mills, and it prospered in the nineteenth century because the canal came through it. It's on the Musconetcong River, which runs from Lake Hopatcong to the Delaware River, and is two miles from the Delaware, so it's almost at the intersection of the Musconetcong and Delaware Rivers. It sounds far, but it really isn't.
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tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2206
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2005 - 3:44 am: |
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http://www.tavernpc1763.com/misc/finesville.html
Open this file and see more photos. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2207
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2005 - 4:40 am: |
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our bridge over the Musconetcong.
In the back is a house dating back about 150 years, was a tavern for passing canal boat people. Each room has its own fireplace, so probably was a hotel. Down below, behind that stone wall is a basement that looks a lot like an Underground Railroad hiding place. Lore of this valley is that this was a way station for the Underground Railroad. Attic windows along the road were constructed so that you could see one window from the next. This also may have been useful during the long march of the Continental Army, coming through here after marching through Asbury and after fighting in the battles of New York State, on their way to the Delaware, where they regrouped in PA for the crossing into Trenton.
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tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2208
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2005 - 4:59 am: |
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"Have a lemonade on the front porch" days...
1910. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2209
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2005 - 7:37 am: |
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This is now route 627 through Finesville. They cut some of those big trees down, but the houses are still standing. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 2210
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2005 - 7:46 am: |
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The willow trees are now on the left side.
And thanks for letting me post non-SOMA history. Maybe it will be of interest to you anyway. |
AGD4
Citizen
Username: Agd4
Post Number: 37
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 1, 2005 - 9:44 pm: |
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Our house is 1895. Have found plenty of old newspapers stuffed into wall spaces.
Behind plaster we have found many dated initials and signatures of crafstman working on the house. Some signed their profession as well including "the lather" who installed the lath behind the plaster.
Beneath wallpaper we have found that every paperer signs their name and dates it, sometimes indicating their hometown. In one room, we found that the paperer dated that this particular room was done after the "great fire of 1959." We new the house had experienced a fire, but didn't know the year. With date in hand, we were able to ask the South Orange fire department to pull out and copy the report on file the fire. The report indicated that the house had extensive damage to the third floor including almost the whole roof gone. The report also indicated the names of the firefighters who responded and how long it took to put out the fire.
Best finds: playing cards under the stairs (workers on lunch break?); sketches underneath wallpaper of how fireplace mantels, finials, and spindles were to be carved; other whimsical sketches of women with parasols, rum runners, Kilroy type faces, etc; and a beautiful (but fragile) business card for a carriage manufacturer in upstate New York. Perhaps the carriage salesperson stopped by to try to sell one to the people who were building the house in 1895.
Hope to find more...dream of finding the original drawings for the home... |
kevin
Supporter
Username: Kevin
Post Number: 441
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Monday, May 2, 2005 - 12:10 pm: |
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My house was built around 1925. Over the weekend I found an old magazine stuffed in between the the foundation and door to a crawlspace. It is Colliers from August 13, 1938. The magazine is color and is in amazingly great shape. Cover price is 5 cents and there is a subscription mailing label on it that has an Irvington address....perhaps this was one of the previous owners who moved from Irvington?
There is also an old newspaper from 1937 or so folded and stuffed in the same vicinity, but it crumbled when I tried to remove it, so it's staying.
My house was extensively renovated by a previous owner, so who knows what they found.
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Grrrrrrrrrrr
Citizen
Username: Oldsctls67
Post Number: 61
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, June 16, 2005 - 11:53 pm: |
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I bought the house of the previous town manager...guesses anyone? I found a ton of porn...mags, videos, etc in a few different places. I'm guessing it was hidden by his sons.... |
Jersey Boy
Citizen
Username: Jersey_boy
Post Number: 33
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006 - 8:01 pm: |
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I'm over in South Orange in a 1920's Colonial revival. The basement has a large room with a raised wood floor that I plan on fixing up and using as a rec. room. I was cleaning out some built in bench seats and found an old dart. Ebay has them for sale as 1930's antiques.
Also dug some huge holes for landscaping and found lots of debris from the house's construction that must have been used as fill. |
kevin
Supporter
Username: Kevin
Post Number: 592
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 10:00 am: |
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As a follow up to my original post:
"I found a collections notice in its envelope from the 30s. It must have been sent as a result of the great depression. It was behind a built-in dresser. I'll have to remember where I put it to recall what it said and the amount owed. "
I researched the deeds at the hall of records last year in Newark while down there for Jury Duty. My house was built in 1925, sold soon after, and in 1937, passed back to the previous owner because the current owner defaulted on the mortgage. There were two houses on the property, the land was subdivided and the next sale was 1945.
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Glock 17
Citizen
Username: Glock17
Post Number: 367
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - 7:44 pm: |
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My mom does a lot of gardening. Since we moved to SO in 1990, weve found numerous marbles and plastic army men in the ground around the house. |
edward father
Citizen
Username: Mreddysfather
Post Number: 4
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 5, 2006 - 4:22 pm: |
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Our pocket door slots were missing the doors. We found 1 set in the garage being used as shelving. The other was a single door, chestnut, measuring 46". We found that one on the 3rd floor. It was covered over with sheetrock, had a notch in it and was being used as a wall. Sad. |
Boomie
Citizen
Username: Boomie
Post Number: 306
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, May 6, 2006 - 4:52 pm: |
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To John Roberts: You don't live on Brookwood Dr do you? It sounds like the house my grandparents built, and my grandfather collected old plates and nailed them in the garage. When we sold the house in 1990, they were still there. |
Dennis J O'Neill
Citizen
Username: Plungy
Post Number: 40
Registered: 6-2005
| | Posted on Friday, June 9, 2006 - 12:03 am: |
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The house I lived in at 105 second street SO., an 1876 "workingman's cottage" was a treasure trove. It was built by Peter V Stewart. A local merchant who had a small grocery where Ambiance jeweler is now. While insulating behind the walls in the attic I found the original cast iron well pump which was located over the cistern in the kitchen. I also found all of Stewarts leger books filled with the names of all the customers who owed him money. The folks in the book have streets named after them now. Milligan, Connett ect.
I also found various articles of victorian clothing, shoes, starched collars, cuffs ect. About 100 tobacco insert cards of various themes, a tin type photo. 25 caliber bullets in a box, many bottles, Kruger beer with the old wire bail stoppers, medicine bottles with intact lables from local drug stores, Louis Feint ect. Even some salve which claimed to cure gonnerea.
I could go on even more. I live in Cranford now but I still have most of the stuff. If the historical society ever has a facility I plan on donating it.
Peace.
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 14642
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 9, 2006 - 7:21 am: |
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Wow, Dennis.
My house, built in 1888, has been modernized a few times. Not many artifacts left now. I was surprised yesterday to find a lump of coal on the basement floor!
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Larry Seltzer
Citizen
Username: Elvis
Post Number: 33
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 9, 2006 - 8:35 am: |
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Half a case of Meister Brau in the basement near the now-gone wet bar. And the people who we bought the house from were Mormons, so it was probably there when they bought the house in the mid-80's. I saved one can as a souvenier. |
HOMMELL
Citizen
Username: Hommell
Post Number: 223
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, June 9, 2006 - 1:57 pm: |
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We have definitely found a few pieces of coal lying around. And a random wedding photo in the attic. |
