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39 Times People Discovered Surprising Things Left Inside Buildings By Previous Owners
Every old house has its secrets - from hidden treasures in the crawl space and secret doors to creepy basement passages and dark attics filled with ancient valuables. The history is all around us, and if you look hard enough, you can find a treasure trove inside your home. Below you'll see a list of people who made unintentional 'archeological' discoveries when on the task of home renovation and then found a way to put them to good use.
Some of the artifacts are small, like coins hidden in the wall, while others are more permanent features to the structure of the building, such as an old well in the floor and secret rooms. No matter the size we can all agree it's pretty cool to come across clues that tell us about times past, so scroll down below and enjoy these 'rare antiquities.' Don't forget to upvote your favs and may your treasure hunt be lucky!
P.S.: The story behind the razor blade slot that quite a few people find when home remodeling has a simple explanation - some houses built before the 1970s had these slits for razor disposal for two reasons. One was that the razors were dangerous to put in general trash, and the second was that people didn't think about littering and trash the way we do now. For them, waste used to 'magically' disappear, so dropping them into a secret place between your bathroom walls seemed like a great idea.
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#1
They Found The Old Bath Under Their Living Room
RELATED:
#2
Pulled Up The Carpet At The House, And Guess What I Found!
#3
Treasure In My Bathroom
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
Wow, wow wow. I wonder the story behind, how can one leave that ring? What happened to original owners!
#4
I Was Helping My Dad Move Into His New Office, When We Found A Trapdoor
#5
This Vintage Space Themed Wallpaper Found Under 3 Layers Of Other Wallpaper In An Old Farm House
#6
The Walgreens In My Neighborhood Used To Be A Bank And They Used Its Vault As Their Vitamin Section
#7
Friend Was Redecorating His New House And Found This Under A Layer Of Wallpaper
#8
Found A Paw Print On A Brick Wall
#9
The Table At This Pub Has A Well In The Middle Of It (England)
#10
Untouched 1800's Cemetery Preserved In The Basement Of A Tall Building Built Over It
#11
My Grandparents Have A Glassed-Over Well In Their Kitchen
They bought the house 10 years ago, they stripped it down and they found it then. They thought it was quite unique and wanted it as a feature, it’s about 25 foot deep and connects to a small old river that ran under a long time ago. Fortunately I have yet to see anything down there!
#12
Our New Apartment Has A Little Milk Door Under The Cabinets
#13
My Friend Decided To Replace Her Old Carpet And She Found A Cellar Door And A Cool Surprise
Aaron Kara 6 years ago
I would be worried that the 'surprise' waiting for me after opening a secret cellar door would be eternal damnation and pure unbridled evil carnage...
#14
My Apartment Is An Old Police Station And Still Has The Original Cell Doors But Painted
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
I will probably paint black bars on it to make it more realistic!
#15
Found Some Friends In A Mile-Long Tunnel That Travels Beneath My Apartment Building
#16
Lost Hippie Mural Found Under My Flooded House
#17
Found A Message While Removing Our Cork Floor Tiles
#18
My Living Room Was Built Around A Huge Sandstone Rock
#19
This Wall Broke Exposing Years Of Layers Of Paint
#20
Found Some Nice Drawings Under The Wallpaper I'm Removing
#21
100-Year-Old Elevator Handle I Saved
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
I have so much urge to give it a Go! Like they show it in movies!
#22
These "Tom And Jerry" Type Mouse Holes Gnawed In A House Built In 1741
#23
Uncovered At A Times Square Construction Site
#24
I've Been Living In My House And I Just Noticed My Back Door Handle Is A Spoon
#25
The House I'm Staying In Has Kept Its Original Well As A Feature
#26
So I Just Moved Into A New Apartment, And Made A Big Discovery
#27
While Renovating My Basement We Found This Painting On The Cement Behind The Wall
#28
I Recently Moved Into A 70s Porn Motif Dream Home. This Is My Bathtub
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
Honestly, to me it looks like just a wash basin, may its the perspective which is making it look small or that is really small bath tub for midgets!
#29
Apparently, Disposing Of Old Razor Blades Inside Your Wall Was Acceptable In The 1950's
Aaron Kara 6 years ago
In their defence it is labelled 'razor blades'.' Where else could you possibly dispose of them?
#30
This Mail Slot In A Building I Was In Today Sends The Mail Down 17 Stories To The Basement. Original From 1929
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
I love it the way it is maintained and preserved. A gateway to 1929!
#31
My House Still Has Old-Fashioned Light Switches From Its Original Construction
#32
This Building Has The Original 1909 Electrical Switches
Night Owl 6 years ago (edited)
That's smart. I bet they are still better (better quality, made of better materials, more durable) then new ones. As long there's still someone who knows how they work and how to fix them and as long you can find spare parts for them... OK that might be a problem. But as decoration and for a history lesson it works
#33
Found This 20-Year-Old Promise Hidden Under The Wallpaper In Our New House
Night Owl 6 years ago (edited)
:D Someone should let him know and remind him of his promise
Load More Replies...
Kerri Labelle 6 years ago (edited)
Weird that I read this as the Spice Girls are playing on the radio!
Celeste McKenzie 4 years ago
I'm guessing Dad had a full diet of Spice Girls' music in that house.
Alethea de Groot 4 years ago
I was born 2 weeks after this lol 😂 well 15 days
Load More Replies...
Eleanor Orser 5 years ago
As kids we had old plaster walls and my dad renovated and installed wall panelling. Before he added panelling we all wrote and drew pictures and whatever we wanted. A cousin on my moms side of family was visiting and she had a crush on a cousin of mine from dads family.and she wrote all kinds of lovely dovey stuff. Well long story short, many many years later (40 at least) my parents have passed away @nd house sold once or twice and a sister of my cousin Bought the house unknown to them it was once in family. They did a renovation and pulled off panelling and found an entire room full of family scrawling relating to her brother and all of us as cousins. What are the chances if that?
Heidi Woodbury Sweetwater 6 years ago
Well, they are. Albeit individually rather than as a group. I hope "Dad" is still alive and watches America's Got Talent.
Crouching_Penn_Hidden_Teller@yahoo.com 6 years ago
consider yourself lucky
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Molly Block 6 years ago
LOL!!! Ohhhh if he only knew about the trouble Mel B has gotten herself into, and how that damn Victoria Beckam (posh poop spice) cannot EVER smile!!
#34
Friend Tore Down His Wall For Renovations And Found This Mural On Another Wall Behind It
#35
My House Used To Be A Bank, So We Use The Old Safe/Vault As A Basement
#36
There's A Random Chain Embedded In The Wall Of My 1930s-Era Home
#37
A House My Girlfriend And I Looked At Had A Shower In The Guest Room
#38
The Fan In My Toilet (Probably From The 70s) Has The Same Logo As Beats By Dre
#39
My House Still Has The Original Light Switches
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What do you think ?
Fia gale 6 years ago
In my house we found a door behind the fitted wardrobe leading into a room with chains hanging from the ceiling
Anne 6 years ago
This needs pictures! (Assuming they were for fun.. not torture.. was the police called?) ok this needs a lot more explaining!
Load More Replies...
KT Trondsen 6 years ago
Love these kind of threads! please put more of this up bored panda, loved it!
Mary McConnell 6 years ago
My first apartment was in a 2-room school house. Found the original slate blackboard under the wallpaper. Years later, I'm now a home renovator and found vintage porn in the walls. I'm sure the guy that put it there thought he was doing some future guy a favor.
Elspeth Mitchell [Student] 3 years ago
You can maybe do fake school with stuff
Load More Replies...
Sarah Double 6 years ago
I found this note behind written behind a kitchen cabinet i had removed in my Circa 1900's house.
Turns out the previous owners thought it "would be funny" when they updated the kitchen. Luckily they decided against putting a chalk outline of a body under the bath when they remodelled that.........!!!! Words fail me. IMG_5396-5...0c625b.jpg 
Karen Merkel 6 years ago
We found an old Sears catalogue in the attic of our old farm house dating back to 1939. Amazing prices.
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
When travelling to Asian countries, I visited many forts and palaces built my kings/queens. While roaming inside I always wondered, if I press a brick or step on something, which will open a vault and I will find lots of gold/diamonds hidden inside and then I will be crazy rich for my entire life, sadly it never happened and I am still stuck with this computer!
Elspeth Mitchell [Student] 3 years ago
I found a well in my school. It is in room 113. They put bricks and the floor of the classrooms. It is now a chromebook space
Meeow 6 years ago
Hell naw!! All of those basement/underground, a well, cemetery, old doors, floor painted, message on floor/wall, all them crazy a*s found...Rrrrrrun!!!!! But I like the mail slot all the way down, the bank vault/safe, that's neat! Those area like Hollywood hill you probably can find the drug money like my hubby said hahaha!
Shelly Binkley 6 years ago
I put a time capsule in my last house after buying it and updating it. M
Stannous Flouride 6 years ago (edited)
When they remodeled my bathroom in 2014 I placed copies of the 2010/2012/2014 SF Giants World Series victory newspapers in a plastic bag with powdered silica in the wall above all the plumbing so that someday someone will have the joy of discovery. I also included a letter with all the information I have about the building that I've lived in since 1982.
Jonathon Purnell 4 years ago
We found a message in a bottle in the ocean once. It was from the 1600's.
Kim Lorton 6 years ago
Such amazing and odd things people hid in walls and cubbies! I love it!
Michelle Swank 6 years ago
I heard about a house where, after doing some renovations, found that under the house were the ancient ruins of the theater where Emperor Nero forced his citizens to watch him perform.
Brian Leahy 6 years ago
We had renovations done on our house and when we had a wall moved, found empty beer cans and McDonald's burger wrappers from the 70s.
Jonathan Constant 6 years ago
Wish this were a list. My parents have a big cartoon cowboy drawn on the wall underneath their stairs. There's a door that's always covered it as long as I can remember. I never noticed it until I was a teen but they said it was there when they moved in... they've lived there more than 30 years.
Fia gale 6 years ago
In my house we found a door behind the fitted wardrobe leading into a room with chains hanging from the ceiling
Anne 6 years ago
This needs pictures! (Assuming they were for fun.. not torture.. was the police called?) ok this needs a lot more explaining!
Load More Replies... KT Trondsen 6 years ago
Love these kind of threads! please put more of this up bored panda, loved it!
Mary McConnell 6 years ago
My first apartment was in a 2-room school house. Found the original slate blackboard under the wallpaper. Years later, I'm now a home renovator and found vintage porn in the walls. I'm sure the guy that put it there thought he was doing some future guy a favor.
Elspeth Mitchell [Student] 3 years ago
You can maybe do fake school with stuff
Load More Replies... Sarah Double 6 years ago
I found this note behind written behind a kitchen cabinet i had removed in my Circa 1900's house.
Turns out the previous owners thought it "would be funny" when they updated the kitchen. Luckily they decided against putting a chalk outline of a body under the bath when they remodelled that.........!!!! Words fail me. IMG_5396-5...0c625b.jpg
Karen Merkel 6 years ago
We found an old Sears catalogue in the attic of our old farm house dating back to 1939. Amazing prices.
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
When travelling to Asian countries, I visited many forts and palaces built my kings/queens. While roaming inside I always wondered, if I press a brick or step on something, which will open a vault and I will find lots of gold/diamonds hidden inside and then I will be crazy rich for my entire life, sadly it never happened and I am still stuck with this computer!
Elspeth Mitchell [Student] 3 years ago
I found a well in my school. It is in room 113. They put bricks and the floor of the classrooms. It is now a chromebook space
Meeow 6 years ago
Hell naw!! All of those basement/underground, a well, cemetery, old doors, floor painted, message on floor/wall, all them crazy a*s found...Rrrrrrun!!!!! But I like the mail slot all the way down, the bank vault/safe, that's neat! Those area like Hollywood hill you probably can find the drug money like my hubby said hahaha!
Shelly Binkley 6 years ago
I put a time capsule in my last house after buying it and updating it. M
Stannous Flouride 6 years ago (edited)
When they remodeled my bathroom in 2014 I placed copies of the 2010/2012/2014 SF Giants World Series victory newspapers in a plastic bag with powdered silica in the wall above all the plumbing so that someday someone will have the joy of discovery. I also included a letter with all the information I have about the building that I've lived in since 1982.
Jonathon Purnell 4 years ago
We found a message in a bottle in the ocean once. It was from the 1600's.
Kim Lorton 6 years ago
Such amazing and odd things people hid in walls and cubbies! I love it!
Michelle Swank 6 years ago
I heard about a house where, after doing some renovations, found that under the house were the ancient ruins of the theater where Emperor Nero forced his citizens to watch him perform.
Brian Leahy 6 years ago
We had renovations done on our house and when we had a wall moved, found empty beer cans and McDonald's burger wrappers from the 70s.
Jonathan Constant 6 years ago
Wish this were a list. My parents have a big cartoon cowboy drawn on the wall underneath their stairs. There's a door that's always covered it as long as I can remember. I never noticed it until I was a teen but they said it was there when they moved in... they've lived there more than 30 years.
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