Vintage Finds Renovating Vintage Homes

MisterCairo · Aug 5, 2017

I could not find any thread like this, but barkeeps, please merge if I missed something.

I will shortly start posting pics from several old newspapers and one partial copy of LIFE magazine discovered under old carpeting removed from my house three years ago, while we were having new flooring installed.

It was common for homeowners and renovators in the day to use newspapers to "even out" dips and even holes when installing carpeting, underlay or floor boards.

I also learned from our carpenter that the old "blown insulation" in our attic is actually micro-shredded newspaper! We discovered several partial pieces of legible newsprint, but it dissolved on picking it up, so nothing referenced from that.

Have you discovered anything hidden in your vintage home while doing repairs or renos? My home was built in 1900, and clearly flooring work was done in both 1939 and 1948, as evidenced by the dates of the papers.

Curiously, they had kept a 1945 edition of LIFE, only to use it to even up the floors in 1948.

MisterCairo · Aug 5, 2017

Sadly, the cover is missing, but we have an indication of what it looked like from the description of the cover story - Peggy Ann Garner, "Junior Miss", a budding film starlet of the day (sadly, she did not transition to a star in adulthood, and died in 1984, aged only 52, from cancer:

Found it: July 23, 1945. Laid down as underlay 1948, found in 2014 -

MisterCairo · Aug 5, 2017

Start of the story of Junior Miss, the film from 1945 about a cheeky teen:

MisterCairo · Aug 5, 2017

LIFE 1945 - Chrysler Corporation 1945 - maker of tank components. 38 years later, maker of the mini-van:

Plymouth would last another 60 plus years making "great cars" before disappearing:

I wonder if they used Goodyear "Lifeguard" tires:

MisterCairo · Aug 5, 2017

Random composition, thoughtless carelessness, or the definition of irony - an advert for a "helping hand" fruit juice next to an article about a sergeant having lost both hands being fitted with prosthetics:

MisterCairo · Aug 5, 2017

Last one from the under-carpet LIFE, an article on fraternizing with those pesky German girls:

scotrace · Aug 6, 2017

Interesting. And that's Harold Russel, who played Homer in The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946.

MisterCairo · Aug 7, 2017

A few interesting articles, adverts and comics from the older newspapers.

Globe and Mail, Toronto, 26 January 1939. Canada is less than eight months away from war.

MisterCairo · Aug 7, 2017

Very sad story of a man near North Bay, Ontario, who killed himself after being denied "relief":

MisterCairo · Aug 7, 2017

Ladies, if you are between 38 and 52, and going through "the change", you can still attract men notwithstanding. Keep up your "pep" with Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound:

MisterCairo · Aug 7, 2017

The funnies:

LizzieMaine · Aug 7, 2017

I loved "Henry" as a kid. There was something eerie about its silence and its timelessness. No matter what year it was in the real world, it was always 1936 for Henry.

Paisley · Aug 21, 2017

Sometimes when there are enough trees and bushes on a lot, the house IS the find. People think of Indiana as miles of corn fields, but the natural landscape is forest.

1930artdeco · Aug 24, 2017

When I redid my bathroom, the previous owners at some point stuffed a newspaper from 1950 before korea got started. So we were getting shot at and I am sure shooting at someone before it actually started.

Mike

MisterCairo · Aug 26, 2017

Some more uploads.

"Nervous husband, ladies? Try tomato juice..."

MisterCairo · Aug 26, 2017

Gentlemen, travel back in time nearly 80 years to save on Burberry overcoats>>>

MisterCairo · Aug 26, 2017

Good news Lizzie and other ball fans, Gehrig has re-signed:

GHT · Aug 26, 2017

Our house was built in 1953, a few years back I had the front perimeter wall replaced due to a large crack caused by tree roots. The contractors found a time capsule, it had a newspaper cutting of The Queen's coronation, there was also a newspaper cutting about the discontinuation of the farthing, a quarter of the pre-decimal penny. in a small envelope attached to the cutting were two farthings. There was quite a few odds and ends about the house and about 1953, I didn't think to make a copy. What we did was to give our names and rebury the capsule with as much oddments and newspaper cuttings as possible about the 2013, adding a note of when we found the original capsule.

MikeKardec · Aug 28, 2017

When I was a kid a friend's father found a Browning .380 stashed in the attic. That's my favorite!

I've only found a lot of vintage newspapers myself. The original wiring, bare copper though porcelain insulators, in my mother's Colorado home was pretty cool though.

MisterCairo · Aug 28, 2017

Both houses I have owned have had knob and tube wiring. Totally removed it from both, but several of the knobs remain, along with a few tubes through the joists and floor boards!

The rifle was a cool find for sure!

MikeKardec said:
When I was a kid a friend's father found a Browning .380 stashed in the attic. That's my favorite!

I've only found a lot of vintage newspapers myself. The original wiring, bare copper though porcelain insulators, in my mother's Colorado home was pretty cool though.

Vintage Finds Renovating Vintage Homes

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