Have you ever watched those shows on T.V. about people finding rare valuables in their attic? I have always thought it would be amazing to discover something like jewelry or money, but I never believed it was going to happen to me. My husband and I recently bought an old Victorian home. We live in a small town and apparently the house has an interesting history. It was built in 1902, so was one of the first homes built when the town was established. We did some digging at the local library and came to find that the original owners were a wealthy couple. They gave back to the community by making frequent donations, and as such the park in town was named after them.
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I thought this was pretty neat; I always dreamed of living in a historic home, so this made me even more excited. The story of our attic discovery was purely unintentional though. Being as old as it was, the house was not in the greatest of shape when we first moved in. The porch was falling apart and the interior needed some serious remodeling work done. It had been sitting vacant for a couple of years, which did quite a bit of damage. Thus, our adventure began. We hired some contractors to do a bulk of the work, but wanted to make sure we got our hands dirty as well. For sentimental reasons, it was important to us to put some of our own labor into the job.
Our renovation began on the ground floor, as this was the area that required the majority of work. From refinishing the hardwood floors to painting every square inch downstairs, we sure did have our hands full. You can’t even recognize it now though, so in the end the time and money we spent was well worth it. After the lower level was complete, we moved upstairs. The second floor did not take nearly as long, as we only really needed to install carpeting. The attic on the other hand was something we did not intend to do anything with. I figured it would be a good place to store our stuff, but we ended up deciding to finish it off (a suite was in mind).
One day when we were installing drywall, my husband noticed a piece of paper hidden in the rafters. It was dusty and dirty, but was still readable. It turned out to be a letter. Low and behold, it was a love letter that a man had written to a young woman. My only guess was that one of the workers had written it to the owner’s wife. From what we could read, this seemed to be what the story was. Apparently there some sort of romance going on that they wanted to keep secret. Can you believe it? A piece of history had been hidden in our home for nearly a century! This is by far more fascinating than discovering money in my opinion.
Super cool! Oh I wish I had found something as cool as that.
My house came with a whole lotta nothing. In the way of physical artifacts that is. But since I live in a small town and it is mostly populated by seniors, they know the history of my house and love to tell me about it. They did reveal that the man who built the house died there and wasn’t found for a number of days… I guess that might creep some people out. But I thought it was a pretty neat little story.
LOL well you have a very open mind …. a lot of people would freak out having found out that info after a purchase!!
This is a very interesting experience. I also think that sentimental meaning adds up to the value of the house. I love to settle down in historical houses. Unfortunately, they are very expensive in our country. The ones with costs that are within my budget are houses that look haunted and I don’t think I could call them home.
Unfortunately I’ve never got the chance for such a thing. I’ve lived in new homes but I still think it would interesting to find things like that. I guess I’m just not lucky enough!!
I think it’s very interesting to find a letter that was written all those years ago. I would love to see what kind of paper it is written on, and I would love to see the handwriting of the person.
As far as being MORE fascinating than finding money…? Well, I have to admit that I think that finding this letter is AS exciting as finding old money, but more? I don’t know. Perhaps
OK, that’s pretty cool. I’m always fascinated when a piece of history reveals itself. My daughter discovered some really old coins amongst some stuff that we inherited from a distant cousin, and they now hang in a frame in our living room. I can’t tell you how many people have stood in front of them and just stared & stared.
That is so interesting. I write short stories and that could be the basis for a story. Sitting there all those years, makes you wonder whether or not anything became of them as a couple? Quite the intrigue. Thanks for sharing.
We are looking for writers for Realty Drama …. fictional and non fictional stories!!
Really Mr. Taylor? How do I apply?
I would love to have the details. I think my email address is on file. Please feel free to let me know what to do. Thank you very much.
LOL it’s William
Realty Drama is gaining popularity and we would like to expand our content through interesting “stories” specific to 1st time buyer experiences, Sellers trials and tribulations of selling a home and novice real estate agents challenges.
The writers we are hoping to attract have experience in one or all of these areas &/or have a wealth of knowledge to draw upon from friends & associates in these topics.
If you would be interested in becoming an ongoing writer, just contact me through the site and we can chat further.
Thanks for your interest.
Hi, thanks. Will be in touch, or you can let me know what is required.
Had to spell name correctly. “o)
What a wonderful story! I believe in doing some of the renovation in my house myself, it just makes you feel more at home, and you appreciate the work going in to it more.
It is amazing that you now own two pieces of history. A beautiful Victorian House and a love letter, that tells you real people lived there before. You should frame it and make a place of honor for it somewhere in your home.
What a great story! I love stories like these, and I fully agree – such a find is much more of a treasure than more traditional things like money or jewelry.
What a great story.
Is there any chance of you uploading a picture of the letter? I would love to see it.
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This would be an amazing thing to find in your home! I also live in an older home that was built in the mid 1900′s and I haven’t found anything as interesting as this. The only thing I have found was a very old hairbrush! Finding an old love letter opens a book of mysteries and thoughts on what happened and why. I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it and do as much research as possible, to see if I could put it together. Anyways, again that is an amazing find and I would frame it!
I do not know if I could be in that house after hearing that story, it sounds very creepy.
Wow, that is an interesting story! I absolutely love stories like this. It’s so fascinating to learn about people from the past through artifacts, such as love letters. I once helped a friend’s parents move out of their house. They had many different things from their lives, including old postcards. The postcards were just addressed to a person’s name and a city. I thought that was so interesting because there was no home address. This shows that the post-worker knew everybody in the small town and didn’t need house address to deliver mail. It’s very cool to see how times have changed since then!
I want to buy a old historic home and look for treasures. I think it would be neat to find something cool like that. Or even better something valuable