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47of74

(18,470 posts)
Mon Jan 9, 2012, 10:51 PM Jan 2012

Lookie what we found in our old house

We're remodeling the upstairs of our house, which was built around 1880. Except for carpet and fresh paint jobs the upstairs hasn't really been touched as much as the rest of the house. So this is the first substantial redo and stuff is being pulled up that hasn't been pulled up before.

My brother found this stuffed under some trim that he pulled up, an old grocery ad from November 1878







Having spent the last 130 some years inside a trim board it looks to be in pretty good shape.

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Lookie what we found in our old house (Original Post) 47of74 Jan 2012 OP
That is so cool! cyberswede Jan 2012 #1
Fairly close to there 47of74 Jan 2012 #3
All I want to know... ellisonz Jan 2012 #2
You might want to look around for somebody to give that to. bemildred Jan 2012 #4
how cool NJCher Jan 2012 #5
I found an old newspaper ad for "Citizen Kane" that was used as wallpaper Hissyspit Jan 2012 #6
Amazing what was used for building materials when traditional materials of means 1monster Jan 2012 #9
My Cousin the librairian, jdadd Jan 2012 #7
Ask your local Historical Society Mopar151 Jan 2012 #8
I can beat that!!!! AlbertCat Jan 2012 #10
I would get that framed in that special glass. cool find! Tuesday Afternoon Jan 2012 #11
Wonderful, Dubuque, Iowa JDPriestly Jan 2012 #12
Dubuque has had a German presence for a long time 47of74 Jan 2012 #13
very nice FedUpwithcalls Feb 2012 #14
 

47of74

(18,470 posts)
3. Fairly close to there
Tue Jan 10, 2012, 06:38 PM
Jan 2012

I live fairly close to Dubuque. Close enough that this traveled all the way down from there in the 1880s, which would have been quite the journey back then.

NJCher

(37,897 posts)
5. how cool
Tue Jan 10, 2012, 11:45 PM
Jan 2012

check around and see if there are any relatives.

I live in a house built in 1875, so I can identify.

Thanks for sharing.


Cher

Hissyspit

(45,790 posts)
6. I found an old newspaper ad for "Citizen Kane" that was used as wallpaper
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 05:10 AM
Jan 2012

in an old abandoned dog-trot cabin in the backwoods of Tennessee. I still have it.

1monster

(11,026 posts)
9. Amazing what was used for building materials when traditional materials of means
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 02:40 PM
Jan 2012

were unavailabe. I grew up in a pre Civil War home that has a kitchen added during the Depression. We tore out the kitchen walks when I was a preteen and found that inside the clapboard shell was only painted newspapers and canvas. the rest of the house had the traditional clapboard outside and horse hair, wooden slats covered by plaster inside. The kitchen was simply clapboard outside with layers of painted newspaper and canvas inside. It worked. Necessity is the mother of invention or needs must when the devil drives.

jdadd

(1,320 posts)
7. My Cousin the librairian,
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 08:39 AM
Jan 2012

Works in the reference dept of our local Library. He's constantly getting donations of old papers,ads, and photos found by owners of old houses. Maybe the Dubuque Library would be interested in this.

Mopar151

(10,179 posts)
8. Ask your local Historical Society
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 09:44 AM
Jan 2012

Or the one from Dubuque. They often maintain a local history archive.

 

AlbertCat

(17,505 posts)
10. I can beat that!!!!
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 05:41 PM
Jan 2012

I had a roommate after collage who liked antique furniture. He was a set dresser and I was a costumer. He bought an 1830's couch at some flea market, and the upholstery was dreadfully faded and coming apart. It musta been the original because when we took it off we found in the seat stuffing half (????) a velvet coat. It was picked apart into its pieces but all the parts of the left side of an 1830's cutaway coat were there.... in bottle green velvet. I made a pattern out of it and used it in a Dickens show I did a year or so later.
It looked very much like this coat:



But with sleeves that were fuller and gathered into the armseye at the top and a very high collar around the back of the neck. (this coat looks more 18-teens/20's... the gathered sleeve and high collar gave the decade away...1830's)

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
12. Wonderful, Dubuque, Iowa
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 02:09 AM
Jan 2012

Interesting mixture of English and German -- and in print. You don't see that very often.

This was printed for a community in which, as a rule, people must have spoken both languages.

 

47of74

(18,470 posts)
13. Dubuque has had a German presence for a long time
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 11:50 PM
Jan 2012

The first wave came in the 1850s and 60s and by the 1860s were about 30% of the population. There was another large boom in the 1880s when the Milwaukee Railroad Shops opened bringing a large number of young German families to the area. Even into the 1900s German was spoken in north end churches and schools.

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