Stripping Paint?

Big Man said:

I love a good mystery. I also hate a good mystery that I can't figure out.

In the "front room" of my house (built 1907), there are two sets of holes in the floor along the back wall of the room. The holes are about 1/4 inch in diameter and each about an inch or so apart, with the second set about five feet from the first. I spent a lot of time in this house growing up (used to spend every summer here with my grandmother and aunt), but never noticed them until about two years ago. Now, there is absolutely no one left to ask what they were for.

I guess some mysteries are never to be answered.

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Me too. So I'll tell you what I think the trap door is.

It's known that the city south of this house was a known stop on the underground railroad according to newspapers in the 1850s (Owego). Local newspapers in the 1890s in Harford NY (two miles from the house) list a person there as a former abolitionist and conductor. Local forklore suggests one of the closer villages (Richford, 3 miles) was also very active. This house lies on the main road between Richford and Harford originating in Owego.

Since the house was built after the Missouri Compromise, it is possibility it was connected. The lady of the house was originally from Richford, the man from Harford. Now, because there was fear of prosecution for involvement even decades later, we don't know the vast majority of people who participated.

What's weird about the door is that I got nothing from it. One would think it would give off some sort if physic thing, as such a place experienced strong human emotions- fear, resistance, triumph. I do believe the house has spirits, and I've been visited by a woman (the scent of perfume came out of nowhere) when stripping this floor. I've had that happen once before, years ago when working on the back stairwell (not stripping). It's not the smell of the stripper as I've not had it happen again, despie working in that same room and others.

But everybody who finds something weird in their house thinks it's something, but chances are it isn't.

Big Man said:

I love a good mystery. I also hate a good mystery that I can't figure out.

In the "front room" of my house (built 1907), there are two sets of holes in the floor along the back wall of the room. The holes are about 1/4 inch in diameter and each about an inch or so apart, with the second set about five feet from the first. I spent a lot of time in this house growing up (used to spend every summer here with my grandmother and aunt), but never noticed them until about two years ago. Now, there is absolutely no one left to ask what they were for.

I guess some mysteries are never to be answered.

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One possibility might be that these holes were drilled in the twenties for radio wiring. One set of the holes might have passed thru wiring for an external aerial and a ground wire -- the aerial wire might have run from the back of the radio set, under the floorboards to a cellar window, up an insulated lead, and to an antenna strung up between poles or between the house and a tree. The ground wire would have run from the back of the set to a cold-water pipe in the basement or a copper rod driven into the soil outside the cellar window.

The other two holes could have been the "A" battery leads providing power to the tube filaments. These would have run from the back of the set to a 6-volt wet-cell storage battery kept in the cellar. Arrangements like this were very common in the mid-twenties, before AC-powered radios became popular, because the batteries -- which were essentially the same thing as a car battery -- tended to spill or leak on the floor or carpet, and fastidious homeowners preferred to avoid this.

LizzieMaine said:

One possibility might be that these holes were drilled in the twenties for radio wiring. One set of the holes might have passed thru wiring for an external aerial and a ground wire -- the aerial wire might have run from the back of the radio set, under the floorboards to a cellar window, up an insulated lead, and to an antenna strung up between poles or between the house and a tree. The ground wire would have run from the back of the set to a cold-water pipe in the basement or a copper rod driven into the soil outside the cellar window.

The other two holes could have been the "A" battery leads providing power to the tube filaments. These would have run from the back of the set to a 6-volt wet-cell storage battery kept in the cellar. Arrangements like this were very common in the mid-twenties, before AC-powered radios became popular, because the batteries -- which were essentially the same thing as a car battery -- tended to spill or leak on the floor or carpet, and fastidious homeowners preferred to avoid this.

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That would make sense, but in the case of my house the first radio was purchased in 1936. It sat on the buffet in the dining room. There is still a notch cut in the window where the antenna ran, and the insulator and ground stake are still outside the house. I even have what is left of the old radio.

Getting a radio was something so special here that the story of it was told and retold to me as a boy growing up.

LizzieMaine said:

The other two holes could have been the "A" battery leads providing power to the tube filaments. These would have run from the back of the set to a 6-volt wet-cell storage battery kept in the cellar. Arrangements like this were very common in the mid-twenties, before AC-powered radios became popular, because the batteries -- which were essentially the same thing as a car battery -- tended to spill or leak on the floor or carpet, and fastidious homeowners preferred to avoid this.

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These are down in my basement and I think they were for the old boiler ( IE: the crank handle ), but just as Lizzie states they would have placed them in the basement.

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

I wonder if it was for some other sort of wiring.... do you know when the house got electric?

That's a system for operating an automatic chimney damper for a coal furnace. The crank handle winds a spring which controls the tension to the damper, and the two No. 6 dry cell batteries power the motor for opening and closing it. The crank has to be wound once a week to keep up the tension, otherwise they stay closed.

LizzieMaine said:

That's a system for operating an automatic chimney damper for a coal furnace. The crank handle winds a spring which controls the tension to the damper, and the two No. 6 dry cell batteries power the motor for opening and closing it. The crank has to be wound once a week to keep up the tension, otherwise they stay closed.

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I don't know how you do it Lizzie ( you always seem to have the right answer) but that makes perfect sense as thats where the old boiler was before they took out the "snowman" boiler and put in the brand new gas furnace that I have now.
The house was built in 1915 Sheeplady so not sure when it got juice but I would imagine it was in this area at that time .

All the Best,Fashion Frank

The Muse'e d' Orsay in Paris has a wonderful painting entitled, "The Floor Planers" It would appear a bottle of wine made the job much more pleasant. LOL!
The Orsay is a must see and highly under rated because of her big sister the Louvre.

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collec...o_cache=1&zoom=1&tx_damzoom_pi1[showUid]=3998

sheeplady said:

I wonder if it was for some other sort of wiring.... do you know when the house got electric?

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My granddad wired the house for electricity in 1930. I have the first power bill where the beginning meter reading is "0". My family saved everything.

I wondered if it could have been for some kind of pre-electricity wiring (battery?), although I never heard my grandmother, dad, or aunt talk about anything other than kerosene lamps prior to getting electricity in 1930.

There were 32-volt DC lighting systems using an array of wet-cell batteries kept charged by a generator driven by a windmill. This sort of system was very widely used in rural homes from the mid-1910s until the REA came along in the thirties.

These systems required special 32-volt light bulbs, appliances, and everything else that went with it, and could often be bought as a package deal. Sears and Roebuck and Monkey Ward both did a very big business in supplying and supporting these systems, but the Delco company also sold a lot of them directly to users.

Big Man said:

My granddad wired the house for electricity in 1930. I have the first power bill where the beginning meter reading is "0". My family saved everything ...

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Just in case someone doubted I had the first power bill to my old house ...

You can use a product called Marine Kwik. The blue label stuff will take up 99.5% of old finishes and the orange label stuff takes up anything that could have ever be applied.

Available at most marine dealers.

all one does is paint it on wait pick it up with a wide blade putty knife then immediately wipe down with laq thinner or laq removing solvent.

I have a really great MCM dining set and it's in great condition, except for the fact that someone painted the top an off white over the original finish (I can tell since it's flaking around the edges and they didn't do the underside completely) Will the Soygel stuff remove the original finish under the paint? I want the paint gone, but don't want to end up with a mismatched table top/ remove the finish.

venusop said:

I have a really great MCM dining set and it's in great condition, except for the fact that someone painted the top an off white over the original finish (I can tell since it's flaking around the edges and they didn't do the underside completely) Will the Soygel stuff remove the original finish under the paint? I want the paint gone, but don't want to end up with a mismatched table top/ remove the finish.

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The SoyGel will take it down to bare wood, including the original finish. I am not sure if soygel works on veneered pieces, as I've only worked with solid wood. I would be very very careful using anything without a lot of research on a veneered piece, as many strippers can actually dissolve the glue holding the veneer on.

I think the best thing to do would be to refinish the entire piece, because there is not going to be a way to just remove the paint and not the underlying finish either entirely or without damaging it at least partially. If the paint is really flaky and poorly applied, you could try using a very thin and blunt (think Victorian era) butter knife or something similar to remove it with a lot of patience. If the paint is latex, a bit of warm water (but don't ever let it set!) might help you, but I'm not sure what it would do to underlying finish not knowing what it is. Do not use the water at all if the table is veneered as it will completely destroy the piece. You'd likely scratch the finish even being careful, which you could then patch with a little furniture oil (dark or light).

Honestly, though, best to strip the whole thing, sand it, and then refinish it all to match.

This is why you never *ever* paint furniture that wasn't made to be painted. And also why painted pieces of furniture go for pennies compared to non-painted pieces at auctions.

Enjoyable thread.

Firstly, because I planned to use that Soy Gel on our salvaged 30s mantel and it's reassuring to hear a success story (The mantel has grooved "speedlines" on it, too, because you want your fireplace to be streamlined and "speedy" as it goes nowhere, but I love it) and secondly, because I love a good house mystery.

I thought before Sheeplady said it, that the trap door seemed to be made for hiding something/one and that it might be Civil War era related, especially if it was sealed up circa 1880s. Maybe some old timers in the area know some neighborhood lore that would ultimately explain it all. Might not be too late to ask around. But still, fascinating...

DecoDame said:

Enjoyable thread.

Firstly, because I planned to use that Soy Gel on our salvaged 30s mantel and it's reassuring to hear a success story (The mantel has grooved "speedlines" on it, too, because you want your fireplace to be streamlined and "speedy" as it goes nowhere, but I love it) and secondly, because I love a good house mystery.

I thought before Sheeplady said it, that the trap door seemed to be made for hiding something/one and that it might be Civil War era related, especially if it was sealed up circa 1880s. Maybe some old timers in the area know some neighborhood lore that would ultimately explain it all. Might not be too late to ask around. But still, fascinating...

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Get yourself some dental tools for that streamlined mantel. Works really well with the SoyGel. Duluth trading sells a set that I use a lot.

As far as the house mystery, most of the old timers are gone from the area. We tried to contact the lady who lived in the house from the 1950s on to the 1990s, but her number was disconnected.

The area has a unique history; it did really well during the early to mid 1800s because of logging. This was when our house was built (1853 we think). Because of the deforestation and the deep valleys and steep hills, there was much erosion. By the 1880s, the area was beginning to become depressed. By the 1920s many farms had been abandoned in the hills. In the 1930s much of the land was acquired by the state to prevent erosion. The population there is much smaller than it once was- the nearby "large village" 3 miles away once had 1,000 residents- now not more than 100. And the closest hamlet 1 mile away once boasted close to 400 people- and now boasts about 40 (and that's only because one family has six kids).

The house/ family that built it history I am going to tell you I am quite proud of, because I pieced it together using census records, deeds, and newspapers.

The family who built it, Ransom and Mary, were quite wealthy as far one could tell. They were married in a triple wedding- Mary, her sister (first name unknown), and her brother; with the reception held in a hotel in the largest town around, drawing hundreds of people. Mary's family owned sawmills.

They had two children, Nancy and Oscar. They bought a colonial house that had been built by Mary's brother, Horatio. This colonial house is across the street from ours. Throughout the 1840s they are constantly buying land and then selling it. We believe they were buying wooded land, logging it, and then investing in better farmland. In 1852 they buy the small segment of land that our house sits on, that borders the majority of the farmland they have. There are two sawmills bordering the property, one of which is run by Mary's father and brother (?).

Mary and Ransom sell the colonial that her brother Horatio built in 1854 to Mary's sister and husband (who had been married in the same triple wedding). We assume our house was built between when the property was bought, 1852 and when the colonial house across the street was sold, 1854. Ransom and Mary have a long marriage, during which time their son, Oscar, get's married in his late thirties to the illegitimate daughter, Cornelia, of William Rockerfeller (yes, Cornelia was the half sister of John D.).

Mary dies in 1884. Her daughter, Nancy, marries in her forties sometime after this. Ransom remarries sometime between 1887 and 1889, when he dies. He marries Edna, who is 20 at the time of his death (he is 76). The property is left to Edna, who remarries within two years and sells it on out of the family.

Oscar, Ransom's son, is never a farmer, and lives in the nearby hamlet, running at one time a hotel with Cornellia. He has two children, Ray and Winifred. Winifred gets married at an older age, is a teacher, and moves to Havana, Cuba. Ray is a businessman, running a steam mill (grain) and managing a hotel in the nearby city. In the teens, around 1915, Ray buys the house and property back from the man his former step-grandmother (Edna) sold it to. He never lives there. Ray tries to sell it, but it appears he rents it. In the 1940s, it is sold after his death.

It would be fascinating to see if either of Ray's daughters or grandchildren were still alive (they might have been in the house and remember it), but since they were both daughters, it is going to take a lot more time to track them down. If anyone knew what that trap door was for, it might the be original descendants.


I don't know if anyone else finds this fascinating, but I do. It is amazing what you can find out if you apply yourself for a couple hours a day.