What secrets lie behind a home’s walls?

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Published Date 7/31/2024

You buy a resale house. That house has been occupied by a number of people over the past decade, few decades, or even a century. And like an antique, the house has a provenance. But what DON’T you know about its history? Some unknowns, it turns out, may be hidden.

Property Onion’s Alex Burn describes a few surprises discovered by homeowners after move-in. In one instance, he found the story of homeowners who pried away siding on their house to find bootlegged alcohol from the Prohibition era. “It appears the owners knew that a bootlegger built the house back in the day, so to find contents hidden away that confirm that story is exciting. The story didn’t stop there, though” says Zurn. “It turns out the bootlegged alcohol is actually worth about $1,000 per bottle.” That got Zurn curious, making him search for other such revelations.

Another was about love letters from a WWI soldier hidden in a homeowner’s wall. “While they don’t necessarily have monetary value, they probably meant much more to the recipient at the time they were received, assuming they were read before being hidden away behind the walls.”

Did you know one of the most valuable comic books of all time was found hidden in the walls of a home? David Gonzalez’s find sold for an incredible $175,000 at auction. Why? It turned out to be the comic book with the very first appearance of Superman.

Of course, we’d all like to be one of those lucky folks on Antiques Road Show, right? Here is a cool story: Two brothers were going through their deceased father’s home when they found something hidden in the walls — a Norman Rockwell painting valued at millions of dollars. One of the most interesting parts of the tale is that there was already a replica of the same Norman Rockwell hung on the opposite wall — two paintings of the same thing, one hidden and one hanging on the wall for display. Evidently, the owner hid the original from his wife during a divorce.

A homeowner on Reddit tells the story of finding a hidden crawl space, where he found an old briefcase, some watches, videotapes, and money. There was also a letter that read: “Save yourself.” Creepy.

Back in 1999, Harvard thought they had a Crimson-style murder on their hands when human bones were found in the wall of a chapel. “The true story behind these bones is that the building wasn’t always a chapel,” says Zurn. “Prior to conversion, the building held studies of science and medicine and the bones were used as a skeleton for examination by medical students.

In April 2011 during a bathroom remodel, a Wisconsin man stumbled upon a very active weapon of warfare — a live Korean missile with a five-inch explosive head on it. The prior owners of the home, who were in the Korean War, had collected “souvenirs” from it.

Even new ouija boards are creepy enough, but what about one found in an abandoned house behind the walls? The construction worker who made the discovery said the board was concealed in a wall and positioned with its writing upside down. Superstition?

Of course, dead bodies found behind walls sounds like an old CSI episode. But in 2013, the body of a woman missing for 28 years was found behind a false wall in the basement of her Poughkeepsie, New York home. “Her husband, who reported her missing in 1985, is believed to have committed the murder, though he died just a few months before the body was discovered and was never questioned,” says Zurn. “I’m not sure how many dark basements you’ve entered in your investing life, but I’d say this would be the absolute worst-case scenario.

PropertyOnion, TBWS

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