I had been joking with the guy redoing our bathroom that there was probably untold treasure hidden under the floors and behind the walls, just waiting patiently for 90+ years to be excavated. Yesterday, he handed me something and said, "Well, it's not exactly gold, but it is pretty cool." What he'd found were some scraps of newspaper that were stuffed between a couple of boards.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a date on any of the scraps, and I spent a good long time yesterday trying to sleuth it out. I'm quite sure they're from the Boston Globe, because some of the classified ads say to respond to a particular box number at the "Globe Office." But there were a few obituaries, and I couldn't find them in the Globe's online archives, which go back to 1872. I also did regular Google searches but couldn't come up with anything. I believe the house was built in 1926 (or was it 1925?), and the deaths listed occurred on February 22, so it was likely a paper published February 23–25 in 1923–1926. If anyone is a paying member of Ancestry.com, maybe you can find something there!
I also tried to find something about an article on Lowell's "Great Hall of Architecture" written by Howell Cullinan but came up empty there too.
Look at all the ads for chickens and eggs!
Update: Well, it took longtime reader Mark all of a few minutes to find the Cullinan article, which was published on p. 32 of the Globe on February 25, 1923. COOL! Here's the scrap held up to the actual article from the Globe archives on my monitor:
Pretty cool. We only found asbestos!
Posted by: Stephanie | January 30, 2014 at 01:41 PM
This sounds like your "Hall of Architecture":
"Shortly after the end of World War I, the Lowell Board of Trade proposed plans for the creation of a new monument that would honor local Veterans of all wars. A Memorial Auditorium was decided on as an appropriate structure. A commission was formed under Mayor Perry D. Thompson, to decide on both the site and the architecture of this memorial. The Commission named John J. Harrington as Chairman. Governor Calvin Coolidge signed the legislative act necessary for the implementation."
http://lowellauditorium.com/?page_id=59
Posted by: twitter.com/mhgatti | January 30, 2014 at 01:51 PM
I love this stuff. We found newspapers being used as insulation in our last house, but it was too brittle and shredded to get any info off it.
Posted by: twitter.com/mhgatti | January 30, 2014 at 01:52 PM
And I found a lot of references to Cullinan working for the Globe (and WEEI).
Posted by: twitter.com/mhgatti | January 30, 2014 at 01:53 PM
Found it! LOWELL'S WAR MEMORIAL LIKE NO OTHER
Cullinan, Howell; Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927); (Feb 25, 1923), p. 32.
Posted by: twitter.com/mhgatti | January 30, 2014 at 02:06 PM
YOU SO TOTALLY ROCK!!!! THANKS! (And why couldn't I do that?!)
Posted by: Karen | January 30, 2014 at 02:10 PM
Hmm, you said these were under the bathroom?
Posted by: Chris Pitts | January 30, 2014 at 03:13 PM
Ha! They were IN THE WALLS -- too late to have been used for reading material. (Probably!)
Posted by: Karen | January 30, 2014 at 03:27 PM
My in-laws grew up in Cambridge and remember there being a lot of farms there back then (1930s-1960s). So all the chicken ads sound about right. :)
Posted by: Kirinqueen | January 30, 2014 at 06:42 PM
Karen,
How are you??? Your blog makes me miss Boston. A little. But not THIS winter :)
When we moved into our house (built in 1935) here in San Francisco in 2011, we had a chimney guy come and check it all out to be sure it was safe to use. Way up inside the chimney he found a perfectly pristine copy of the real estate section of the SF Chronicle from October 8, 1942. Pretty neat. Also meant that the fireplace had likely not been used since around then!
Posted by: Risottogirl | February 15, 2014 at 02:54 AM