Picture Source: Public Domain CD

Do you like to explore old houses, especially old houses with things still in them? I like to and I am sure most people do. While it wasn't exactly a house, I remember exploring an abandoned US Army barracks and finding an old boot from World War II. In another building I found a broken light bulb, not an ordinary one, but one of those old fashioned ones with the piece sticking out of the top. This is the type you see when pictures of Edison are shown with his original bulb. For example, just think of all those interesting things that you might find in a house of an old relative I thought it might be fun to see what others have found in these old houses.

I found that the most common old objects found in old homes were, you guessed it, old shoes. In an old home in England that dates back a couple of hundred years, a shoe was found in the chimney that was over 100 years old. Makes you wonder how it ever got in there, doesn't it? I wonder if a chimney sweep lost it? It seems that many old shoes are found in the rafters or above them. A dried cat was found in England in the roof thatching of a old home. This is not as unusual as it sounds. It seems that dried cats were put in various locations of old houses because they were thought to keep witches away. Witch bottles are also sometimes found in these old homes. They are bottles made of stoneware or glass. They were filled with urine, felt hearts, nail clippings and other objects. They were buried beneath the hearth or near the entrance to the home.

Picture Source: Public Domain CD

I thought I like old houses but the people at the museum at Mumford, New York have out done me. They actually have collected old houses. This museum is comprised of old homes that have all been moved to Mumford.

In one old house a newspaper was found dated November 9, 1841 and bore a story about a young lady who, while getting a drink from a pipe, got a baby eel in her mouth. The paper was found inside a wall that had been plastered. Newspapers are found in many old houses and are usually inside the structures somewhere. By that I mean in the wall, under the floor or in the ceilings. Another newspaper was found in a different house that was from 1925, it was the Chicago Herald and Examiner and bore a story about a 22 floor skyscraper being erected. A friend of mine was tearing down a wall in his old house when he found 3 very rare old baseball cards. Unfortunately they had been nailed to a stud. Even with a hole through them he still got several hundred dollars for his find. Some basements are still dirt in these old homes. Many a glass bottle has been found in the dirt of a basement. Some of these old glass bottles can be valuable.

In an old Russian home a piece of planking from a boat was found that dated about 1880. In the same village another plank was found in a different house. These planks came from 'sewn boats' and you can see the holes running along both sides of the planks. If a house is old you might be lucky enough to find some old coins. Coins are sometimes found where they may have been dropped or wedged behind draws and the like. This is nothing like the thrill of finding an old coin that might be over 100 years old or more. What I like about old coins is the fact that they were actually handled by the people of the times. I have a few Roman coins in a frame, they are not valuable but it excites me just to think that people actually used them 2000 years ago.

Old photos are found many times in old houses. It is very strange looking at photos of people past. These people may be totally unknown and maybe will never be known again by anyone. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? This could be our photos many years into the future, couldn't it?

Many old houses, where the occupants were unfortunate enough to die, still have the paintings hanging on the walls. A lot of people have walked into a deceased relative's home to find this situation. Some of these pictures might even be mysterious, by this I mean a print that may be from a nursery rhyme or famous book. These have been know to turn up from time to time and just might be of some value under the right circumstances.

Sometimes you can find something in an old or fairly new home that might surprise you. There was a case on Long Island in New York State where a real estate agent sold a house to a couple. While they were renovating the home they found millions of dollars packed inside of a wall. It seems that the former owner was a large scale drug dealer. I can't tell you why the money was still there.