My parents once rented an old house in Portland, Oregon. I went to visit them, and jokingly asked if they had looked for "hidden rooms". Then I opened a closet, and noticed the ceiling was lower there than in the rest of the house. Someone had built a compartment that could only be accessed from the attic. It was empty. Or filled with riches. I forget which.
I have always loved houses with secret rooms and hidden passages. I once lived in a house on Orchard Lane that was riddled with disguised panels and hidden doorways that led to the servants' wing and then wended through back hallways to the mundane accesses to the kitchen areas. For a twelve year old boy it was great fun to play hide and seek with friends in that house.
Since then I've always wanted to build my own house from the ground up, and the designs have always included swinging bookcase doors from the study to the master suite, hidden safe rooms behind or aside chimney breasts, dumbwaiter chutes, and secret staircases. I guess it is the kid in me.
When I was recently looking at buying a new home in a new city my partner ws continually dismayed when I called her over to inspect the neat "hidden" space that I had "discovered". Apparently love for these secret spaces and minor mysteries is not genetically encoded across our species.
Going back to the theme of hidden rooms, I know someone who worked night shifts in a textiles factory where there was a storeroom with a hidden room behind shelving, where staff would go for a sleep.
I grew up in Stratford, Connecticut and one of my teachers had a house near a cemetery. She had a closet with a secret door to a secret tunnel which was part of the Underground Railroad. It made a great impression on me as a kid. (She had invited some of her students over and showed it to us.)
Students of Thames Polytechnic, Woolwich borrowed one of the cannon from outside the Royal Arsenal, and captured and threatened to scuttle the Woolwich ferry.
My parents once rented an old house in Portland, Oregon. I went to visit them, and jokingly asked if they had looked for "hidden rooms". Then I opened a closet, and noticed the ceiling was lower there than in the rest of the house. Someone had built a compartment that could only be accessed from the attic. It was empty. Or filled with riches. I forget which.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked with Awol, the glider we were constructing in the upper part of the building, was descovered by De Management.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved houses with secret rooms and hidden passages. I once lived in a house on Orchard Lane that was riddled with disguised panels and hidden doorways that led to the servants' wing and then wended through back hallways to the mundane accesses to the kitchen areas. For a twelve year old boy it was great fun to play hide and seek with friends in that house.
ReplyDeleteSince then I've always wanted to build my own house from the ground up, and the designs have always included swinging bookcase doors from the study to the master suite, hidden safe rooms behind or aside chimney breasts, dumbwaiter chutes, and secret staircases. I guess it is the kid in me.
When I was recently looking at buying a new home in a new city my partner ws continually dismayed when I called her over to inspect the neat "hidden" space that I had "discovered". Apparently love for these secret spaces and minor mysteries is not genetically encoded across our species.
Build your own Colditz Glider
ReplyDeleteGoing back to the theme of hidden rooms, I know someone who worked night shifts in a textiles factory where there was a storeroom with a hidden room behind shelving, where staff would go for a sleep.
I grew up in Stratford, Connecticut and one of my teachers had a house near a cemetery. She had a closet with a secret door to a secret tunnel which was part of the Underground Railroad. It made a great impression on me as a kid. (She had invited some of her students over and showed it to us.)
ReplyDeleteCar on the roof, Cambridge
ReplyDeleteMIT stunts
Students of Thames Polytechnic, Woolwich borrowed one of the cannon from outside the Royal Arsenal, and captured and threatened to scuttle the Woolwich ferry.