Recent Historical Find

[Chuck]

Very cool find! I grew up in an old house that used to be the halfway house for carriages from Detroit to Pontiac (I think that was the route). We found many cool things in the house and in the old carriage house in the back. WHen I was about 9 or 10, my mom found an old newspaper tucked behind the sink dating from the Civil War, and the coolest thing we found was a hidden room in the master bedroom. The east wall had a sort-of walk-in closet and next to it was a built-in dresser. My brother and I got to thinking, there must be something behind the dresser -- the depth of the closet was 8-10 feet at least. So we decided to pull the drawers, and found catches holding in place the wood spacers between the drawers -- they popped right off. This created an opening about 4 feet wide and almost 6 feet tall. The "back" of the dresser swung on hinges when we pushed against it revealing a 8x12 room with sloped ceilings under the eaves of the roof. There were shelves of bottles, some still sealed, and what looked like the remnants of a still. We had the local historical society come in and take a peek -- they were impressed. It was from prohibition days. They photographed everything and then we donated it all to them It was quite the find! It was never confirmed, but we think the house may have been part of the underground railroad, which is cool beyond measure. You never know what is hidden in some of the older houses, things lost to time.

Chuck