Many old homes have a rich history filled with stories you could tell the grandkids about. But in some cases, these properties would even come with fascinating artifacts that add more mystery to a residence that once exuded vibrance.
The latter was a topic in an old Reddit thread where people shared their finds while doing home renovations. Some were intriguing while others bordered on utterly bizarre.
We’re talking about items like newspapers from World War II, boat tickets from the late 1800s, and devices that may have been used for shady activities. That’s not even half of the list.
#1
When my Stepdad started digging in the garden to plant trees the shovel hit something solid. He kept digging and found an air raid shelter from the war with steps going down to it. There was still stuff in there and cans of food.
© Photo: -e-m-i-l-y-
#2
We found a calendar from the early 1800’s and a stash of little gold and silver bars once. (probably a few oz’s each) Parents were thrilled as it paid for the entire budget of the renovation we were doing. That was not the weird part. The little old rag doll sitting with them, seemingly pristine after well over 100 years, was the weird part.
© Photo: JamiesLocks
#3
My husband found a brass crab-shaped jewelry box. It looks like this one.
© Photo: MyNameIsNotRyn
#4
One of my friends is a construction contractor, and he was sent to a newly built house to investigate a mold problem. It was a new house, one of those prefab homes, but it already had mold in the walls.
Cut open the drywall to find garbage, mostly soda bottles and fast food wrappers. The people who built the house put their trash behind the drywall and it eventually grew mold in the walls. The owners even said they randomly smelled mcdonalds food sometimes, but never thought much of it.
© Photo: Catshit-Dogfart
#5
A transatlantic boat ticket from the 1880s.
© Photo: furnace_5
#6
I found bloody clothing, a burner phone and a handgun above a drop ceiling in an office building I worked in.
No update, turned into the police for evidence.
© Photo: anon
#7
Wasn’t my house, but we were cleaning out an estate. Found an old Army footlocker from World War II, and decided to open it. In it, I found:
* A large kukri/machete from the Phillipines
* Some EXTREMELY detailed documents from WWI, some with General Patton’s signature on them.
* A can of British “Tea Ration” from WWII. I opened it, and inside found dozens of military insignia dating from at least the Spanish-American War to the Korean War. Not just US insignia, but also several British.
Apparently, the guy who owned the locker’s father was a dual citizen during WWI. He enlisted in the British Army pre-war, saw combat in WWI and moved to the US in 1916, and then enlisted in the US Army, only to be shipped back out for the war’s end in 1917. He went on to go to West Point, which is where some of the documents come from. He served an auxiliary role in WWII as an engineer or something with the US Army, while his son fought in the Pacific Theater.
© Photo: BCA1
#8
My dad moved the fake ceiling panels in our basement that were over the room I had as a kid.
My comic book collection rained down on him (I forgot it, 25 years ago I hid them up there).
He wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew immediately when he told me. I just looked and found out my Wolverine #1 might be worth 50$ on eBay, if it really is mint condition… hmmmm so sad, thought I might be a thousandaire…
© Photo: billbapapa
#9
I found a newspaper from the end of WWII in my bathroom while renovating. It’s in very good condition. Also found a ration point.
© Photo: TailwindsFoxy
#10
Mexican sheetrock crew leader brought a stack of 100 year old $100 bills found in a wall over to my boss, he took one and handed the rest out to that crew for being honest, everybody got like $400 and they were probably worth alot more than face value.
© Photo: cain071546
#11
My sister found a little over 1,000$ dollars. Bills were all from the 80’s and were in an envelope that had deposits and withdrawals written on it.
© Photo: Brandt_cant_watch
#12
My sister and brother-in-law bought a widow’s house. When he tore out a wall to remodel the basement, he found a pile of household trash. Underneath all the old newspapers and plastic Coke bottles was a cardboard box labeled, “Cremated Remains.” Yep. It was the widow’s husband.
© Photo: ageniusawizard
#13
Found out that kids had used the crawl space under the basement stairs at my friends grandparents house. They had a charter of awesomeness and everything carved into the wall. Funny enough we found it because we were gonna do the same thing.
© Photo: Beyondtheview
#14
Was working in a very old house bought by a client I work for, stumbled across the original design hand penciled blueprints from 1919 complete with servants quarters and entrence.
© Photo: NocturnalEmissions22
#15
My sister moved into a small 2 bed house when she had her first child, there was initials engraved above the door T.S or something like that.
a few years later my other sister got a new boyfriend and when he came round to the house he noted the initials, later confirming what he suspected.
His grandmother lived in the exact same house 40 years ago and engraved that before she left. Small world!
© Photo: baconhammock69
#16
A big pile of razor blades.
My house was built in the 1950s, before disposable razors, obviously. Apparently the bathroom originally had a slot in the wall where you could dispose of your used razor blades when they got dull. The old blades would simply fall down behind the wall and pile up between two of the studs.
I’ve since learned that this was pretty common, but I’d never heard of it before. So I was surprised to see all of these blades come falling out when I pulled the wallboard off.
© Photo: PaulsRedditUsername
#17
It was 1989, and I was installing a furnace system into a home that had been built in the 1970’s. When I took the sheet rock off of a wall, sitting on the top plate behind the sheet rock was an open package of Twinkies. One was still in the package. It looked brand new. It must have been left there by one of the original workers. It was still soft, and appeared to be untouched by nearly twenty years of waiting. No. I didn’t tasted it.
© Photo: cartoonassasin
#18
We moved from a rental house into a house of our own when I was very small. It was a three story brick home in a family neibourhood. The top floor where the kids slept was a renovated attic. There was a play room up there where we would all ( big family ) spend a lot of time. In a corner of the wood floor was a loose board. Being four years old and having nothing but time on my hands I would play around with that board frequently. I would push one end down then the other in a rhythmic sea saw way, as one does as a young child. One day o pushed a bit further than usual. The nail which had held the loose board and allowed it to pivot had worked itself up from all the activity. Inside the little cavity that the board had concealed was a little child’s treasure trove.
There were the usual children’s playthings. Marbles. Christmas tree decorations. Jacks. Crackerjack toys. Deep into the spot was a hollow that my four year old arm could just reach. After digging and straining I pulled up the thing that my figures could just barely reach. It was a human finger bone on a leather necklace. I thought that it was very cool, and wore it around my neck for days, until it was bthtime. When my mother was getting me ready for the tub she spotted it. When ibtold her where I found it she went white and took it from me. I never heard any more about it, but the next time I went up there to play there was a wall to wall carpet installed.
© Photo: Saint_of_Stinkers
#19
I found a safe. I could post pictures, but I doubt it would interest anyone. Especially since I haven’t gotten it open yet.
© Photo: Achievement_Haunter
#20
I helped my neighbors demo their kitchen while they were remodeling their home and they found their entire homes walls were insulated with old newspapers from 1930. Nothing too interesting as most had deteriorated, but their house would have burnt down in a second with the old wiring/ kindling insulation they had going on.
© Photo: Ouijacheater2
#21
Its not that awesome but a few years ago my grandma bought a house to flip and found an atlas that had to have at least been before worldwar one. It had a map of the united states too with only 47 states or something like that. Vietnam was unified, korea was apart of china, and prussia was a thing.
© Photo: FuckBigots4
#22
My dad found a bunch of green army men tied up hanging in his wall. They were doing renovations and decided to knock down a wall. Underneath the plaster, in the space between the two plaster pieces, there were dozens, *dozens* of green army men, tied around their necks with string hanging down.
Bonus: In the backyard they found several buried doll heads. Old ones too, they were porcelain. Not all the dolls, just the heads.
© Photo: anon
#23
I’ve lived in the same apartment for 4 years, just the other week I was opening the window above my air conditioning unit for the first time ever. the window is kind of high and I’m kind of very short so I never had a need to before. It’s upon opening that I realize that there is a creepy doll sitting on top of the window pane staring down into my room, pointed at my bed. Creeped me out.
© Photo: vanitysaddiction
#24
Not me but a friend was knocking out a wall between his kitchen and living room.
Between the wall he found an old canister. He opened it up and there were some trinkets and crumpled newspaper. He uncrumpled the newspaper and it was the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer the day after Pearl Harbor.
© Photo: kukukele
#25
We found an old Burger King hamburger in the drywall… It didn’t even smell bad is what was scary.
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© Photo: Courtbird
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