NYC : Message from a Stranger

[Story]

New York City, home to a disproportionately large number of people living in buildings constructed decades ago, is especially rich in reminders of those who occupied our houses and apartments long before we did. According to the 2008 Census housing survey, 85 percent of New Yorkers live in buildings erected before 1970, compared with 42 percent of Americans generally. More remarkably, 39 percent of New Yorkers live in buildings predating 1930 and 17 percent in buildings predating 1920. Luckily for New Yorkers with a taste for past lives, many of these dwellings function as palimpsests of the city’s history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/realestate/10cov.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

 

[PADDY]

Interesting piece!

 

[rue]

Great article.
It's one of the reasons I love old houses so much. I didn't find very much left behind in my house, but what little there is, is on display. Even a small book of matches.

 

[dhermann1]

Another reason I love my home town.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Great article. It's so true, we flip houses and have found so many neat little trinkets that connect the house to the past.

 

[dhermann1]

I lived in a magnificent limestone row house in Brooklyn for ten years that had all sorts of goodies in the basement. The previous tenents (we rented) had been an elderly couole who had lived in England for many years. She was originally Czech, and a writer, and his business was importing European art films to small American art film movie houses. There was a huge trove of film publicity info from the 60's thru the 80's. I disposed of it, but don't remember what I did with it. Definitely didn't toss it out.
They also had left two magnificent concrete lions, which lived in my back yard for a while, and now guard my living rom in the Bronx.
The house, buiilt in 1906, had been bought by my landlord's father in the 20's, and my landlord was born there. His family had been Brooklyn cops going back to the 1880's. I found a trove of photos and newspaper clippings in a fat folder in the basement. There were clippings about criminals who had been apprehended, at least one of whom went to the chair in Sing Sing. There were extradition papers from Michigan, which looked like a college diploma, photos of the celebration in NY Harbor after WW I, and many other amazing things. There was a shot of his dad in Keystone Cop style hat, sitting on a bicycle. His job in 1904 was to ride his bike on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and when motorists sped more than the limit (which was about 15 mph) to catch them on his bike and issue them a ticket!
There were 2 old billy clubs as well, and an elegant and delicate ebony cane with a horse shaped handle made of ivory. My landlord let me keep the cane and billy clubs, but I packaged everything else up and sent it to him. He was very happy to get it.
There was also a cabinet that had been sealed for over 40 years, which turned out to have a huge trove of liquor bottles! Some stuff, like corked wine and sherries, had to be tossed. But the Scotch and Cognac were still just fine.
There were all sorts of old pieces of miscellaneous hardware as well, a regular museum of old junk and glass door knobs.
Domestic archaeology is one of my favorite pastimes!

 

[Story]

Once upon a time, I got Tom Sawyered into helping a buddy whitewash the inner brick gables of a rowhome in Bridesburg (Philadelphia's 'cancer alley').

In the attic, between the rafters, we found the detritus of the previous residents : a Czarist Russian ocean liner ticket book, blueprints for a Baldwin "Mikado" locomotive, a 1920s linoleum salesman's sample book and other stuff...