When we re-did my father’s bathroom a few years ago (120 year old house), we found a pair of 1932 car license plates and some 1934 newspapers stuffed in the wall behind the lath and plaster.
No idea why someone would have dumped them there.
So you could ask questions all these years later.
Did you find a box with a singing frog?
Maybe an article (or articles) in the papers would have shed some light on why the license plates were hidden in the walls.
There is a story from somewhere in the mid west about a house formerly owned by the cinema projectionist. When the new owners opened the walls to do a renovation they found them stuffed with old movie posters. The previous owner stuck them into the walls for insulation.
The posters were all in pristine condition. Therefore, their value was quite high. They auctioned off all the posters to collectors.
Story number two.
Down the street from my old house a place went up for auction in the early 1990s. The new owners opened up the walls to find some cash and a lot of drugs. Apparently put there by the previous owner. Who was a drug dealer.
It was only a few thousand in cash(sure there was).
The rumor was there was more cash than they told the police.
Have seen a ton of stuff behind lathe and plaster especially newspapers - often just fill to act as a poor mans insulation or just a place to stash trash during construction. Had one house that had rocks and gravel fill about a 1/4 of the way up.
any way to run the plates and see who they belonged to? I wonder if they were stolen plates used in a robbery?
I wonder if there was something in the paper related to the person who robbed the plates?
A friends 1930’s home was insulated with newspaper.
Imagine the fire hazard of 90-year-old newspaper!
Insulation. Same thing happened in my mother’s 100+ years old house. Newspapers, and also sawdust.
No double edged razors from the disposal slit?
It used to be a thing that people put souvenirs in walls, like a time capsule. When opened the cemented-up chimneys in my house, I found knitted baby booties, a liquor bottle, some bus tokens and coins.