Many old homes have a rich history filled with stories you could tell the grandkids about. But in some cases, these properties would even come with fascinating artifacts that add more mystery to a residence that once exuded vibrance.
The latter was a topic in an old Reddit thread where people shared their finds while doing home renovations. Some were intriguing while others bordered on utterly bizarre.
We’re talking about items like newspapers from World War II, boat tickets from the late 1800s, and devices that may have been used for shady activities. That’s not even half of the list.
#1
A transatlantic boat ticket from the 1880s.
Image source: furnace_5, Wikipedia
#2
We found a calendar from the early 1800’s and a stash of little gold and silver bars once. (probably a few oz’s each) Parents were thrilled as it paid for the entire budget of the renovation we were doing. That was not the weird part. The little old rag doll sitting with them, seemingly pristine after well over 100 years, was the weird part.
Image source: JamiesLocks, Zlaťáky.cz/Pexels
#3
My husband found a brass crab-shaped jewelry box. It looks like this one.
Image source: MyNameIsNotRyn, AGardenCottage
#4
One of my friends is a construction contractor, and he was sent to a newly built house to investigate a mold problem. It was a new house, one of those prefab homes, but it already had mold in the walls.
Cut open the drywall to find garbage, mostly soda bottles and fast food wrappers. The people who built the house put their trash behind the drywall and it eventually grew mold in the walls. The owners even said they randomly smelled mcdonalds food sometimes, but never thought much of it.
Image source: Catshit-Dogfart, Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels
#5
A big pile of razor blades.
My house was built in the 1950s, before disposable razors, obviously. Apparently the bathroom originally had a slot in the wall where you could dispose of your used razor blades when they got dull. The old blades would simply fall down behind the wall and pile up between two of the studs.
I’ve since learned that this was pretty common, but I’d never heard of it before. So I was surprised to see all of these blades come falling out when I pulled the wallboard off.
Image source: PaulsRedditUsername, Karola G/Pexels
#6
I found a newspaper from the end of WWII in my bathroom while renovating. It’s in very good condition. Also found a ration point.
Image source: TailwindsFoxy, TOLGA AKAGÜN/Pexels
#7
My sister and brother-in-law bought a widow’s house. When he tore out a wall to remodel the basement, he found a pile of household trash. Underneath all the old newspapers and plastic Coke bottles was a cardboard box labeled, “Cremated Remains.” Yep. It was the widow’s husband.
Image source: ageniusawizard, Mike Jones/Pexels
#8
My dad moved the fake ceiling panels in our basement that were over the room I had as a kid.
My comic book collection rained down on him (I forgot it, 25 years ago I hid them up there).
He wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew immediately when he told me. I just looked and found out my Wolverine #1 might be worth 50$ on eBay, if it really is mint condition… hmmmm so sad, thought I might be a thousandaire…
Image source: billbapapa, Erik Mclean/Pexels
#9
When my Stepdad started digging in the garden to plant trees the shovel hit something solid. He kept digging and found an air raid shelter from the war with steps going down to it. There was still stuff in there and cans of food.
Image source: -e-m-i-l-y-, Secretlondon
#10
Found a bottle of 120 year old scotch behind a bookcase. Since I was hired to do the remodel, I gave it to the homeowner.
Image source: markko79
#11
I found bloody clothing, a burner phone and a handgun above a drop ceiling in an office building I worked in.
No update, turned into the police for evidence.
Image source: anon, Arturo Añez./Pexels
#12
It was 1989, and I was installing a furnace system into a home that had been built in the 1970’s. When I took the sheet rock off of a wall, sitting on the top plate behind the sheet rock was an open package of Twinkies. One was still in the package. It looked brand new. It must have been left there by one of the original workers. It was still soft, and appeared to be untouched by nearly twenty years of waiting. No. I didn’t tasted it.
Image source: cartoonassasin, Chris/Wikimedia Commons
#13
We moved from a rental house into a house of our own when I was very small. It was a three story brick home in a family neibourhood. The top floor where the kids slept was a renovated attic. There was a play room up there where we would all ( big family ) spend a lot of time. In a corner of the wood floor was a loose board. Being four years old and having nothing but time on my hands I would play around with that board frequently. I would push one end down then the other in a rhythmic sea saw way, as one does as a young child. One day o pushed a bit further than usual. The nail which had held the loose board and allowed it to pivot had worked itself up from all the activity. Inside the little cavity that the board had concealed was a little child’s treasure trove.
There were the usual children’s playthings. Marbles. Christmas tree decorations. Jacks. Crackerjack toys. Deep into the spot was a hollow that my four year old arm could just reach. After digging and straining I pulled up the thing that my figures could just barely reach. It was a human finger bone on a leather necklace. I thought that it was very cool, and wore it around my neck for days, until it was bthtime. When my mother was getting me ready for the tub she spotted it. When ibtold her where I found it she went white and took it from me. I never heard any more about it, but the next time I went up there to play there was a wall to wall carpet installed.
Image source: Saint_of_Stinkers, Alex Green/Pexels
#14
While removing old rotted fascia board from the side of a convent my buddy and I found a few old time beer bottles. The kind from the 40’s or earlier that used wired down ceramic caps. After a few jokes with the nuns about how they should hide their beer better we gave them to them, labels were perfect too.
Image source: anon
#15
I found a safe. I could post pictures, but I doubt it would interest anyone. Especially since I haven’t gotten it open yet.
Image source: Achievement_Haunter, Last Stop Okinawa/Pexels
#16
Found out that kids had used the crawl space under the basement stairs at my friends grandparents house. They had a charter of awesomeness and everything carved into the wall. Funny enough we found it because we were gonna do the same thing.
Image source: Beyondtheview, TradeCrawlspaces
#17
Once traipsed through a school that was being renovated into a second chance store. Found a book called “How to Make Ducks Happy” stuck in between two walls. Took it.
It was actually a book detailing how to make ducks happy. I wish I knew where it was. I could have given it to that guy with the ducks.
Image source: Sayasha
#18
We found a prosthetic leg in our first home. It was in an upstairs closet.
Image source: Kkittums
#19
A note in my old handwriting that read “*Run [my name], they are coming*” when we moved out of our old house and packed everything up. Mind you, this was elementary school handwriting. I’m pretty sure that I did this intentionally to spook myself whenever I found it later, but I don’t remember writing it. So I guess I successfully pranked myself?
Image source: Kuronekostories
#20
Wife’s Story:
When she was young, the family had a dog who loved pancakes. Most mornings MIL would make pancakes and the dog would take a couple. Years later all the pancakes were found in the back corner of a rarely used closet.
Image source: Tejano0369
#21
My parents moved into an old house a few years back built in 1850, which had a large basement. Just before moving out, a surveyor noticed one wall in the basement was temporary. So out of interest, the wall was ripped down, revealing another huge room (~70m^2), stacked floor to ceiling with old wartime furniture. At the end of the room, the wall had a big red cross painted on the wall. No wonder the dog always freaked out down there.
Image source: biolew
#22
I was helping my former boss, a historic preservationist and carpenter, with some renovations on a historic home in upstate New York and we found an alarming amount of old barbie dolls (like from the 70’s?) stashed behind a wall in the living room. It was very creepy. I hate old dolls.
Image source: QueenMoogle, Marina Zvada/Pexels
#23
I guy I know found a revolver from the 1800s in the walls of his house. It was in fantastic condition, though they don’t really make the ammunition anymore unless you get it custom (It was rimfire, but significantly bigger than .22).
Image source: Thomystic
#24
I helped my neighbors demo their kitchen while they were remodeling their home and they found their entire homes walls were insulated with old newspapers from 1930. Nothing too interesting as most had deteriorated, but their house would have burnt down in a second with the old wiring/ kindling insulation they had going on.
Image source: Ouijacheater2, Sametraw/Pexels
#25
Mexican sheetrock crew leader brought a stack of 100 year old $100 bills found in a wall over to my boss, he took one and handed the rest out to that crew for being honest, everybody got like $400 and they were probably worth alot more than face value.
Image source: cain071546, Wikimedia Commons
#26
Was working in a very old house bought by a client I work for, stumbled across the original design hand penciled blueprints from 1919 complete with servants quarters and entrence.
Image source: NocturnalEmissions22, Amsterdam City Archives/Unsplash
#27
When we had our bathroom remodeled, the contractor found a family of opossums (mother and four babies) living in the wall behind the shower.
Image source: 88-07-05
#28
My sister moved into a small 2 bed house when she had her first child, there was initials engraved above the door T.S or something like that.
a few years later my other sister got a new boyfriend and when he came round to the house he noted the initials, later confirming what he suspected.
His grandmother lived in the exact same house 40 years ago and engraved that before she left. Small world!
Image source: baconhammock69, Mikhail Nilov/Pexels
#29
I’ve lived in the same apartment for 4 years, just the other week I was opening the window above my air conditioning unit for the first time ever. the window is kind of high and I’m kind of very short so I never had a need to before. It’s upon opening that I realize that there is a creepy doll sitting on top of the window pane staring down into my room, pointed at my bed. Creeped me out.
Image source: vanitysaddiction, Hami Durgut/Pexels
#30
My dad found a bunch of green army men tied up hanging in his wall. They were doing renovations and decided to knock down a wall. Underneath the plaster, in the space between the two plaster pieces, there were dozens, *dozens* of green army men, tied around their necks with string hanging down.
Bonus: In the backyard they found several buried doll heads. Old ones too, they were porcelain. Not all the dolls, just the heads.
Image source: anon, Chris F/Pexels
#31
We found an old Burger King hamburger in the drywall… It didn’t even smell bad is what was scary.
Image source: Courtbird, ramon rangel/Pexels
#32
Wasn’t my house, but we were cleaning out an estate. Found an old Army footlocker from World War II, and decided to open it. In it, I found:
* A large kukri/machete from the Phillipines
* Some EXTREMELY detailed documents from WWI, some with General Patton’s signature on them.
* A can of British “Tea Ration” from WWII. I opened it, and inside found dozens of military insignia dating from at least the Spanish-American War to the Korean War. Not just US insignia, but also several British.
Apparently, the guy who owned the locker’s father was a dual citizen during WWI. He enlisted in the British Army pre-war, saw combat in WWI and moved to the US in 1916, and then enlisted in the US Army, only to be shipped back out for the war’s end in 1917. He went on to go to West Point, which is where some of the documents come from. He served an auxiliary role in WWII as an engineer or something with the US Army, while his son fought in the Pacific Theater.
Image source: BCA1, KingaNBM
#33
My sister found a little over 1,000$ dollars. Bills were all from the 80’s and were in an envelope that had deposits and withdrawals written on it.
Image source: Brandt_cant_watch, Karola G/Pexels
#34
Not me but a friend was knocking out a wall between his kitchen and living room.
Between the wall he found an old canister. He opened it up and there were some trinkets and crumpled newspaper. He uncrumpled the newspaper and it was the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer the day after Pearl Harbor.
Image source: kukukele, Colin Fearing/Pexels
#35
Probably not all that interesting, but I found an old-a*s easter egg in my house.
We had moved into the house probably 2 years prior. I was about 4 years old at the time. On Easter, my parents hid plastic easter eggs all over the yard. I found all the ones that they put out, but I was pretty determined, and I continued even as they told me that I found them all. Finally, I found another, lodged in between these wood blocks that we had surrounding a planter. It had dirt all over it, was a bit smaller than all the other eggs, and my parents swore they didn’t put it out. Sure enough, there was a little piece of chocolate in it. They didn’t let me have it though.
Image source: Fweepi
#36
About 9-10 years ago I worked renovating homes on the east coast of the US; about the strangest I have ever came across was a 3 story house in WV. It belonged to an old widow that decided to make a deal with the person I worked for, we would fix it up and all that jazz while she would continue to live in the house until her death. Due to the arrangement, the guy picked up the home for about $8k, and before we had a chance to get in there to fix it up, the former owner passed away.
Well, we get in there and start to pack up all the stuff to clean out the house and allow the proper family members to come get what was left to them, I decide to check out the attic. Dolls, everywhere just staring at you as you enter. I’m talking about 50 or so dolls, all sitting in chairs, rockers, on ledges, on small swing hanging from the beams. I don’t know, but it caused me to panic. Just all of the lifeless stares.
Another awesome find in a home around Brunswick, NJ was an old Berkel meat slicer. It was in a rough state, but still awesome none the less.
Image source: BalrogTheLunchbox
#37
I was cleaning and organizing my closet a couple years ago after having just moved in to a new house. There was a high shelf (well above eye level) and I’m trying to put a shoebox up there. For some reason it won’t push back all the way to the wall, so I get my stepstool and find that between the shoebox and the wall was a .380 Derringer pistol.
I called the serial number in to the county sheriff and it came back free and clear. I asked if I could legally keep it or if I had to surrender it and the deputy on the phone said “finnders keepers”. That’s how I ended up with the most pointless firearm in my collection.
Image source: pointblankjustice
#38
In the back corner of our yard there was a pile of decorative softball sized rocks(to clarify, they were real rocks) and one of them was signed and dated. The date was 3/16/97. I thought that was pretty cool seeing as I found it 15 years later.
Image source: Rmeshgi
#39
I renovated a house built in 1876. I found the bill in the attic from when it was retrofitted with electricity. It was from 1924 and over $5,000. It was a big house, but I thought that was a lot of money for that time. I also found really old tinker toys and some tin trucks.
Image source: RonSwansonsOldMan
#40
My parents bought an old house and did a major reno when I was a kid. Our builder tore down everything but the basement foundation. Somewhere in the rubble, one of the workers found a Sucrets or Altoids tin soldered shut. Inside it were a couple of negative strips, showing a bride and groom, presumably on their wedding day, alongside a bullet and a spent cartridge.
Creeped me out!
But my parents and the builder were kinda nonchalant, and I don’t think anything ever came of it.
Image source: anon
#41
My aunt recently purchased a home built in the 40s or 50s. The storage shed in the backyard had a hidden cellar full of canned and jarred goods from the 70s. The home had been through several owners over the last few decades, but the cellar went unnoticed.
Image source: anon
#42
Sixteen thousand English pounds.( in Australia).
Image source: MegGrunt
#43
Not something I found but something I placed. A few years back I redid my back covered porch flooring. I found an old Pepsi can that was kinda cool but I did go buy a newspaper and sealed it up in multiple gallon ziplock bags. Hopefully someone finds it someday and gets really excited!
Image source: Guntar13, Erik Mclean/Pexels
#44
I found a bunch of lottery scratchers yesterday in a drop ceiling. That was kind of weird.
Image source: TacticoolPeter, Emiliano Vittoriosi/Unsplsah
#45
On a recent demolition job my dad found an unopened can of coke, and my uncle found a decomposed raccoon. We still have no idea how the raccoon managed to get in the wall between studs, or how the owners didn’t smell it!
Image source: sjberry
#46
Redid my kitchen and found a newspaper from 1912. It was pretty cool.
Image source: anon
#47
My ex and his dad did a slight remodel of their home. Inside the wall, they found an old watercolor sketch/portrait of a woman, along with a pair of those old-timey button-up ladies’ boots.
We bought our first home as it was being built. If anyone ever remodels that one, they’ll only find our names and the date graffiti’d inside the master bedroom wall.
Image source: CelticMara
#48
Its not that awesome but a few years ago my grandma bought a house to flip and found an atlas that had to have at least been before worldwar one. It had a map of the united states too with only 47 states or something like that. Vietnam was unified, korea was apart of china, and prussia was a thing.
Image source: FuckBigots4, Atlantic Ambience/Pexels
#49
A time capsule. My friend was renovating his 150-year-old Victorian, and the workers found a wooden box inside a wall. All the contents were related to the construction of the house. Original blueprints, some tools used, receipts for supplies… Not great monetary value, but they had it all framed in glass and now proudly display it on a wall.
Image source: Scrappy_Larue
#50
A note, written on the wall of a closet. It was written by my brother when he was little. “I love Suzanne Somers.”.
Image source: annihilating_rhythm
#51
Not me but my dad. He was renovating an old farmhouse with a friend of his and they noticed a car sitting on the road but the people in the car weren’t bothering them so my dad didn’t worry too much about it. One day, they rip down a wall and discover a whole bunch of gold chains. That car on the road? It drove down the driveway and the people inside promptly got out, took it all from my dad and his friend except for one they were nice enough to let them keep. Turns out the homeowner was in the mob. This took place in upstate NY.
Image source: LostInGA, Nati/Pexels
#52
A few years ago, I bought a house. A few years later, I decided to remodel the ugly and impractical master bathroom
I removed the bathtub and demolished the large tile structure that surrounded it. After removing the debris, I noticed a large hole in one wall
Inside was a crumpled paper bag containing five .38 caliber rounds. They looked like magnum size.
Image source: MpVpRb
#53
A few years ago I had to dig a hole in the floor in my basement. It had to be about 6 feet x 2 x 1. I dug the hole, used it for its purpose, and refilled it with concrete. Then had to redo all the basement flooring so that it would match and wouldn’t look disrupted. Oddly enough, when redoing all the flooring I found a civil war memorial dollar.
Image source: anon
#54
Found a bag of silver coins that was hidden during the depression.
Image source: Verronney
#55
You find a lot of strange things. A lot. But most of the time you can explain it. You find garbage in the wall, well duh the builders put there garbage in there. Or as is the case in my residence, can’t find the sewer clean out, look under the unpermitted deck…its there. I wasted half a day looking for the the thing when I had a main line blockage, but that’s a story for another time.
The thing I found was on a wall not in it. We were doing a simple gut and redo kitchen remodel. The last cabinet which was attached a wall on the right came out, and we found a 2×4 had been put between the wall and the cabinet just below the counter-top. It was about 12″ long. Not that unusual. Sometimes you need a spacer what was unusual was it had about 50 nails in it. The heads were overlapping like crazy. It took a long time just to work it free of the wall.
I’ve never been able to come up with a reason someone would have put so many nails into this tiny 2×4.
Image source: jediknightofthewest, Pixabay/Pexels
#56
Lot’s of newspapers from the 30’s on up that were used for insulation. Some old Tinker Toys and metal trucks. An electrical bill from 1924 to retro wire a house built in 1876. It was $5,200 which sounds pretty high for 1924. Oh, and cat and rodent skeletons.
Image source: RonSwansonsOldMan
#57
Back before pesky building codes, random things would be used for insulation. My uncle knocked down a wall in his house when he was adding onto it and found stacks of newspapers from the early 1900’s.
Image source: acheron53
#58
I know a couple that had bought a house and were moving the fridge and found a beautiful diamond ring. It was huge too. I remember they got it appraised as it was like $15,000 and old.
Image source: Brilliantchick1
#59
We were completely redoing our summer house and as we took down all the walls, we found this really heavy rifle that was more than 1meter long. I don’t know different names for weapons so I can’t tell you exactly what it was but I will ask my brother for a picture.
Edit: The house was built in late 70’s/early 80’s, I actually don’t know the origin of the rifle. I just know roughly when it would’ve been hidden in the wall.
Image source: anon
#60
My uncle was redoing the walls in a bedroom of my old house and when he pulled away the old drywall he found a pair of old wire framed glasses in the frame. He figured they must have been set down and forgotten about then walled over. They look really cool and still has them to this day.
Image source: UmpalumpaArmy
#61
While digging in the basement I found close to a hundred matching plastic santa heads all about the size of a quarter. They were about a foot under the surface spread through a 12×9 ft section.
Image source: anon
#62
Not my house but my neighbors were in the process of having their house built when the construction guys found a dream catcher buried in the ground. My mom happened to be chatting with them when they found it and told them it was mine, that I had gotten it at Great Wolf Lodge a few years before. The weird part is I never remember taking it outside. I had always kept it hanging from the chain of my ceiling fan and one day when I rearranged my room I lost it. No idea how it got outside or buried in the ground under our neighbors property.
Image source: guac-rocks
#63
The bar-thing that holds hangers in my closet got knocked down and revealed a cache of checks. Like, someone made a hole behind it and absolutely stuffed it full of checks. No clue if they belonged to the previous owner or not.
Image source: SheZowRaisedByWolves
#64
My dad was renovating and restoring a log building from the 1880s on our property. Part of the insulation in the upstairs loft ceiling rafts was old newspaper, and it had adhered to the beams over the decades. There is a newsprint image of a composers face that visited our town with a date from over a century ago stuck right at eye level on the sloped roof. Really spooked my dad and his farmhand when they peeled back the final layer and saw him.
Image source: jackalope_dreams
#65
Behind a shower surround was a window arch that had been bricked up at some point. When the wall was opened up, they had left the old window in place, sandwiched between the brick and the plastic surround. I wasn’t even shut.
Image source: spoofehness
#66
Helping a landlord, found a 1920s fridge walled off under the counter. Under that was a bulk tobacco label for 10 cents. This in New York, where a carton of cigarettes costs $40 outside of the res.
Edit: also found a 1939 typewriter in the attic. Suitcase was busted, but got ribbon online and it still works fine.
Image source: RollinThundaga
