If you live in an old Brooklyn house, check under your floorboards.
That’s how one resident of a circa-1887 Clinton Hill brownstone mansion discovered a treasure of letters, receipts, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera dating from 1900 to 1910.
Why the papers were stashed beneath the floorboards is a mystery.
But I’m glad they were. They offer a rare glimpse of the ordinary businesses and services available to well-off Washington Avenue residents at the end of the Gilded Age.
Oh, and the phone exchanges! Imagine reaching a business with just a 2- or 3-digit number.
John D. Gunning offered “sanitary examinations and peppermint tests” as part of his plumbing and gas fitting business, above.
He must be the same John D. Gunning whose 1917 death notice in the New York Times notes that he “succeeded his father in the contract plumbing business.”
The Union League Stables were next to the glorious Union League Club building, now a senior citizen community center.
Amazingly, F.M. Fairchild Sons funeral directors are still in business—but on Long Island, not in Brooklyn.
Tags: Brooklyn business 1900, Brooklyn ephemera, Brooklyn history, Clinton Hill history, Fairchild Chapels, J.M. Fairchild Sons Funeral Directors, John D. Gunning plumbing, mansions of Brooklyn, Union League Brooklyn, Union League Club building, Union League stables, Washington Avenue Brooklyn
Ephemeral New York 
May 12, 2011 at 10:00 am |
I had once read that contractors would stash newspapers or other time capsule type items between floorboards or in walls as a mark when they were there and to be discovered during the next renovation.
When we tore out our kitchen, we found newspapers from the mid-1950’s – the last time that the kitchen had been expanded into a larger room.
– Jeff
May 12, 2011 at 2:02 pm |
I’ve only ever found bottles, which can be fascinating. I imagine the workers building the house were finishing up lunch and thought it would be fun to stash a soda bottle in the wall.
May 12, 2011 at 2:21 pm |
Had a place on the Lower East Side that had a newspaper from the 1930s underneath the linoleum. Never understand why. My father threw it in the trash.
May 13, 2011 at 11:27 pm |
what a great find– I love this kind of stuff!
any idea what a “peppermint test” was?
May 14, 2011 at 1:49 pm |
No, I keep meaning to look into it. I’ll see what I find….
May 14, 2011 at 12:34 pm |
I really appreciate the crisp high-quality scans of these items, really brings them to life! Thanks.
May 15, 2011 at 1:09 pm |
Peppermint Test:
“To detect the leaks, he will have to be entirely free of its odor. After solution (hot water/ peppermint oil) is added, the system is capped and allowed to stand for a short time. Then the tester goes over every joint, fixture connection, and trap. Wherever he detects the odor of peppermint, there is a leak. Note that the system needs to be only partially filled with the oil and hot water mixture as it vaporizes and so reaches all points.”
May 15, 2011 at 8:26 pm |
Cool, thanks Lisa! A very common-sense solution to detecting leaks.
May 24, 2011 at 3:28 am |
As a restoration carpenter, I have found many and strange things in pre-1920 buildings….beer, liquor, food, drug and elixer bottles in the hundreds, along with the odd tradesmans’ tools The best find however was the newspapers used in a mid-19th century log building as insulation/draftbreakers that were dated 1866, and included the first interview with Mrs. Lincoln after Abe’s demise.
There is a good chance that the paper goods were used as a friction stop to prevent squeaking floorboards……prior to this it was not unusual to find horse hair spread out under floors for cushioning and quieting…..for most of the latter 19th and first-half 20th centuries, a specially made type of waxed paper was layed down on a subfloor prior to laying the finish flooring.