Hello,I recently was having some flooring pulled up, to have hardwood floorsinstalled. This is a century home without a known history. There weremultiply floor coverings along with a layer of plywood, and also a layer ofwhich looked like barn siding. Underneath it all was some original hardwoodfloors which are in terrible shape. Now the for the strange part.At the back of the main floor stairs which lead upstairs, was a cut out inthe floor near the wall. The cut out size in the floor is about 2'x2'. Theworkers lifted this section out, and lo and behold it led to part of thebasement which I didn't even know existed. The basement walls are all oldquarry stone and there isn't a way to access the room from the basement.Anyways, there is a room down there which is approximately 14'x16'. Thereare no stairs, and the ceiling height is only about 5' tall, the floor isdirt in this room vs. someone had concreted the basement that we know. Ihad asked the workers to hold up on further work until I decided whether tosomehow have them add stairs (for whatever reason).The workers say it might have been part of the underground railroad used tohide slaves. BTW, this is in Northern Ohio. Needless to say, this is kindof exciting and scary at the same time. What do you think this roomcould've been used for?

Sounds interesting - can you post pics?

What could it be for?

Feb 17, 2005 42 Replies

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Harry K 21 years ago

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Unless I mised something, it isn't a discrepancy. In the first post it was called a "century house". Doesn't mean that it is 100 years old. AFIK that term is applied to any house at least that old.

Hary K

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Ross Mac 21 years ago

Works for me Harry....Maybe it's for real....take care, Ross

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carolcohen 21 years ago

Oh, good -- I love these opportunities for wild conjecture! Maybe they went to the city govt. to ask if there was anyone who knew the history of the house, and then someone alerted the police about a hidden cellar, and the police of course immediately thought of buried corpses, and made the owners leave while the cellar was dug up. Cleveland is weird.

C.C.

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