Searching for bottles in your own home

[kwalker]

Lately, I've been itching to look in my attic, basement and wherever else I can find in my home to find old bottles or relics. My house was built in 1876 and still has the original basement and attic, plus two additions in the late '80s. The basement is kind of odd. There is a main floor that covers only about half of the actual basement followed by a cut out in the wall with a dirt floor that covers the rest of it. The basement has the original well that was dug when the house was built (house got updated to city water in the early 1900s) that still reaches the water table (throw a brick down there and you'll hear water) are there any specific areas I should look in for bottles or hidden relics? The house also used to have an underground store house that was full of bottles but was tamped down when the additions were built. Covering those bottles forever [] same goes for the one privy I remember... That's why the attic and basement may be my best bets aside from the woods for finding things. So, what I'm interested in knowing are; any specific areas to look in? Any things to look for? Are how likely is it that I'll find something? Also, have you guys found anything neat in your home? Sorry for the bombardment of questions but I'm interested in knowing. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Wheelah23]

The basement sounds like a good place... Dig in the dirt floor area, that might hold some nice things. Look behind the walls in attics, I've heard unopened bottles can be found in places like that. My house was built in the 20's, so no really old bottles to find... Finding bottles in your own house is the best, you can look anywhere!

 

[CALDIGR2]

The walls of 1800s homes are excellent sources of bottles. I have found some good ones that were left on horizontal framing lumber before lath and plaster went on. Beautifully labeled beer and liquor bottles are commonly found under these circumstances. I even found one man's 1875 pay card from the V & T RR in a wall space, along with labeled pumpkinseeds.

 

[kwalker]

Those are some nice finds CALDIGR! Are there any things I should look/listen for when searching?

 

[Nickevlau]

It is tough to explain. In the attic, at the end walls, if you house is designed that way. There is pockets where the ceiling/floor of the attic meets the studs of the end walls. I have had some interesting finds there including an WWII German luger, no bottles yet though. Good luck.

 

[kwalker]

I get what you mean Nickevlau. However, my attic isn't designed that way, Mine has no vertical walls. The roof provides the walls so the entire attic is triangular shaped vertically. Sorry if that sounds confusing [&:]

 

[CWBookAuthor]

Bottles in the walls

Many years ago, I had a digging buddy who found a Success To The Railroad flask in the wall of the old house that was scheuled for demolition. Definitely check those walls out!

Mike

 

[Bixby Bill]

I once rented an apartment that was an addition to a very old farmhouse, so of course I had to check everything out. I was having no luck outside finding anything, when I noticed that the crawlspace under my apt. had an access door to it, so of course I wasted no time to get in there. To make a long story short, at one time there was a trap door in my living room floor and right under it was a mound of mostly broken bottles and pottery, ranging in age from the early 1800`s to machine made stuff. Unfortunately there was a brick suport collumn next to it, so they had something to aim at when tossing the bottles down. I found pieces of several good historical flasks, J.J. Squire jars which were made about 10 miles away in New London, several lids for them, a few unbroken plain pontilled and smooth base meds, some broken redware dishes with slip decorations, and the best was a pontilled Cooley`s Anti-Dispeptic or Jaundice Bitters in mint condition if you don`t count the tiny drain hole in the corner of the base. I`ve heard of a lot of great finds in basements of houses, I think that when the ground was frozen in the winter, that might be where they disposed of the stuff. Good luck in finding something, don`t forget to check out in the beams of the cellar too! Keep us posted as to how you make out!

 

[kwalker]

I went into my basement today just to look around with a bright light. The rafters were the first place I looked. The rafters were made out of railroad ties which I thought was really neat. Left on two of the rafters were porcelain insulators. After 15 minutes of prying on each of them, they finally came out after over 100 years of being lodged in the rafters. The old, rusty wire fell out and crumbled to the touch. Surprisingly, both came out in tact after prying and scraping with a crow bar, screw drivers and hammer pryers. Here are the two. I'm going to go back down and look some more in a few areas of interest tomorrow.

Half lifted up showing the cleats where the wires would go

Markings I couldn't make out. Anyone know of any household insulator makers?

Another update: turns out my house's privy isn't covered over by our garage....but our driveway is in the way. I'll be checking around the area to see what I can find []

 

[BillinMo]

Cool. Those are called "nail knobs." They replaced the earlier oblong cleat style.

You're right, the markings are really hard to read. There are hundreds of markings on old electrical porcelain so I'm not sure I can hazard a guess here. Can you make out any letters at all? Looks like at least an A and P on the left side of that bottom photo.