Artifacts

One of the most fun parts of the reno-prep work we (ie, mostly Jake) has been doing so far is finding old relics of the lives that have been lived in this house before us. Seeing as it was built in 1922, that is quite a lot of living.

Above is the whole selection. We are rapidly running out of room on our little board - we'll see how much more we find. Most of it has come out of the trim, or from behind built-in things, and there isn't much of that kind of thing left in the house.

 On the inside of this card it says 'From Grandpa to Doris'. Jake has proclaimed the words on the bottom 'Happy Days and many a bright outlook' to be the slogan for this project-filled year. So far, it's ringing quite true!

This is one of the oldest things we've found - it is a receipt for 3, 1 Gallon paint cans for 30 cents. What makes it really great are the notes scribbled on it, and also that it is from 1922, which is the year the house was built. It also has the owner's name on it - J.A. Fitzpatrick. There has been some speculation that this is a contractors house because of the extra support in the basement, not to mention the cement foundation and high ceiling height, that isn't normal for houses built at this time. Jake has been speculating that perhaps some of the material used in the house was lifted from other jobs - an argument that gained clout when one of the door frames from downstairs was labeled 'cottage door' on the back.

This is another early receipt for building supplies of some kind - it is hard to make out the old faded writing, but you can tell it's from 1927, which makes it awesome anyway.

With every new find, I think about the archeological/anthropological interest of these kinds of items - who wrote on them, touched them, filed them? What did J.A. Fitzpatrick look like? How many kids grew up here? The other thing that strikes me over and over is these scraps we treasure are really just garbage (largely) that didn't make it to the can. How much of the stuff we are throwing away now would be super-interesting 90 years from now? I am thinking that when we install the kitchen, I will slip some pictures and notes in behind the cabinets, to be found by the next person so renovate this. I would LOVE it if we found pictures of former owners! 

Oh, one more thing. The handwritten page up in the top right corner in the collage picture is the best one. Jake found it tucked into the trim in the closet of an upstairs bedroom. It is handwritten smut. I think it is hilarious. Quote: 'She was a girl of 22 yrs. She was very beautiful and had a well shaped body. Her breasts were large milky spheres and her legs were like beautiful pieces of towering ivory.'

Awesome, right?! It gets even better from there, although most of it can't be read very easily.