Couple Have Marriage Problems, Then Husband Checks The Attic

Surprised

He walked over the floorboards and heard them creak underneath his boots. But after hearing a loud bang, he had to go looking for it. He made his way to the third floor, but then he did something he shouldn’t have – he looked up.

He couldn’t believe what he was looking at. The gaping hole was just the beginning. But then he kept looking into the secrets hidden in the attic.

David Whitcomb

David Whitcomb was 43 and in a marriage that was starting to fall apart. But on the bright side, his business was doing well. The new building he’d bought for his law practice meant that he was getting so many new clients.

He bought an ancient three-story building that would need a lot of work but was a great base for his business. He would renovate and work on the place himself.

The Building on Seneca Street

The building was in the heart of the old district of Geneva in New York. It was run-down but a had certainly had some history to it.

David wanted to use the first floor for office space and use the extra floors for rent. He was always curious about the history behind the building and its historical significance.

Fate

The building wasn’t pretty to look at from the outside. Just row after row of old windows, some cracked and broken.

Growing up David had heard rumors about 37 Seneca Street. He was always fascinated but the neighborhood and couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to buy the building once it went up for sale.

The Finger Lakes

Eleven skinny rivers run between the Pennsylvania border and Lake Ontario. They stretch over the landscape like beautiful roots.

But the Finger Lakes had always been a little strange, Seneca lake always stirred up the wildest stories from the mouths of residents.

Seneca Lake

Many myths, rumors, and hearsay have made the lake quite the object of intrigue over the years.

This lake is the deepest in the area and has reports of creatures in its depths. But who would have thought that there was something in a building just by the lake?

Breaking Glass

David would stumble upon the secret completely by accident. He was just showing off his new building to a friend. But while they were walking they’d hear a sound that would lead them to something amazing.

David went to investigate and found that a lightbulb had burst. But then he’d notice much much more.

Discovery

He noticed a stained ceiling that wasn’t quite right. He then realized that it had a weird join to the top of the wall. Like something was behind it.

David motioned to his friend to come and help in their investigation, “That’s a fake drop ceiling, the wood underneath doesn’t look like the roof.”

The Hidden Attic

From the outside, the building didn’t seem like it had an attic, though. It hadn’t been on the building plans. And yet there it was – sealed over by drywall and lost to time.

they piled up chairs so that they could reach the ceiling to inspect it further. David traced the access panel with his fingers, then he dug his fingernails under the corners and pulled.

Crates And Frames

David stuck his head inside the space and exclaimed when he saw what was inside. “Oh my God! We’ve just found the Goonies treasure!”

The hidden attic was filled with crates and shipping containers. David caught a glimpse of stacks of gold frames that had been pushed up against the wall. Just what had he stumbled upon?

Treasure

Inside the attic, David found antique backdrops, photography equipment, glass negatives, stacks of mail, and prints in gilded frames. He kept seeing the name J.E.Hale.

“We quickly realized all the material was photographs and photography related and repeatedly saw the name J.E. Hale, on photos, boxes, shipping containers, and even found a stack of his mail from approximately the fall of 1916,” David explained later. But who was J.E.Hale? And why had the attic been sealed?

A Mystery

“The organization of the materials was confusing, while it looked like certain pieces had been neatly stacked and organized others were almost thrown here and there,” David later told reporters. But one portrait, in particular, caught his eye.

It was clear from the items that this was a hidden photography studio. As David and his friend fell to their knees and started going through all the items, they came upon something extraordinary.

Burned Into Glass

David was on his hands and knees when he noticed some large pieces of glass on the ground. He scrabbled to pick one up, shone his phone’s flashlight behind it, and immediately stopped.

It was a piece of a glass plate negative. He frantically searched for the other pieces. And he recognized the woman whose image had been burned into the glass. You see, just as the building had attracted David, it had attracted someone else, too.

A Piece Of American History

The Seneca Lake area wasn’t just a hotbed of strange happenings and Native American folklore, it was also the birthplace of the American Women’s Rights Movement. Since 1848, women have had a powerful history in the Finger Lakes Region. The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls.

What were the chances that what David held in his hands was a piece of American history?

A Rare Collection

David had found a picture of Susan B. Anthony. What’s more, it was the original negative of one of the most famous photographs of the suffragist, taken a year before she died. The portrait alone has been appraised at between $10,000 and $50,000, and the rest of the collection in the attic is worth around $100,000.

David says: “What’s amazing is that this material sat in this building for over a century, forgotten. Someone just dry-walled over this attic and it was lost to history until we discovered it, and it’s telling a very interesting story.”

Welcome To Boston

But David wasn’t the only one to find something so fascinating hidden within the darkness of an old building. In Boston, an unsuspecting couple bought a house, hoping to have an excellent place to start their family finally.

But as they ran the preliminary repairs to make the place more agreeable to their tastes and likes, they would discover something that would send ripples all over the state.

Searching

Melinda and Henry had been together for a decade before they finally tied the knot. After years of planning and saving, the two were in a position to buy a home they could call their own.

Both Boston natives, the two wanted to raise their family in a safe yet sprawling neighborhood. They wanted their kids to have a backyard and a culdesac to play. It wouldn’t be long until they found their dream home.

Finding Their Dream Home

The house in question, a two-story building, was an old one. It had been erected in the fifties, giving warmth and security to many families before it was closed in the early 2000s.

Melinda and Henry fell in love with its rustic look and how much history was caked into every inch of its surfaces. They knew they’d made the right decision as they signed the papers. If only they knew what they were signing up for.

Let’s Work!

With everything set, Melinda and Henry began repairing their new home. Since they didn’t have a lot of cash to throw around, they opted to do most of the repairs by themselves.

It boded well for them that Henry had experience as a construction worker and knew his way around most of the repairs around the house. But the discovery they’d make would be something his years of exposure couldn’t have prepared him for.

Bushes And Bugs

The couple began by taking care of the house’s exterior. The backyard was covered in bushes, all of which made stellar homes for bugs that would come out during the rains.

Looking to avoid such a scenario, Melinda and Henry cleared the back and front yards first. Afterward, they went into the house to assess everything that needed changing.

The Open Kitchen Plan

Most of the house was in good condition since the realtor ran a few fixes before putting it on the market. The only thing that didn’t resonate with Melinda and Henry was the lack of an open kitchen plan.

Melinda had always loved open kitchen layouts. The design was something to brag about to friends, and she loved cooking while watching tv straight from the kitchen. The couple had to bring down one of the kitchen walls.

A Simple Wish

Each part of the house was a piece of perfectly persevered American history. Yet Melinda insisted on making the kitchen layout changes.

Henry knew how persuasive and persistent his wife could be. He agreed to her request, bringing his tools to tear down the wall in question. But Melinda’s simple wish would result in something none of them expected.

Working On The Wall

Henry began working on the wall. He was halfway through tearing it down when he saw something that piqued his interest. Inside the wall was a hidden sheet of black polythene paper.

Henry yanked at it, quickly realizing it was part of something larger. He asked Melinda to stand back as he pulled as hard as possible.

A Secret

The paper snapped, with the rest still embedded in the lower side of the wall. It seemed it held something heavy that couldn’t be moved around.

Henry reached for his tools and began unearthing whatever secret the wall held. The more he dug, the more he realized one thing: whoever hid the contents of the black paper had gone to lengths to ensure it wouldn’t be found again.

There’s More To It

After half an hour of chipping away plaster and yanking off wooden planks and concrete, Henry saw that the black paper led onto the floor.

Was that the reason why he couldn’t pull all of it out of the wall? He switched from the wall to the ground, removing most of it until he uncovered something that made him take a shaky step back.

A Chest

Henry had uncovered a hole in his kitchen floor, something he didn’t think existed in his home. But what was more interesting was the metallic chest staring back at him and Melinda.

Its paint was nonexistent, replaced by orange rust and mud. Taking care not to hurt himself, Henry took his screwdriver and pried one of the chest’s corners open. He grinned at what he found inside the trunk.

Dated Money

“Dated Money?” Melinda asked in a bored voice as she checked the box’s contents. She was right. Rows of old one and ten dollar bills, quarters, and pennies stared at them.

Alongside the cash were jewelry and a few bottles of scotch that Henry wasn’t sure were safe for drinking as they dated back to the 1930s. The couple carried the chest into their living room, not knowing the value of the treasure hoard they’d found.

Is It Worth Anything?

To Melinda and Henry, the jewelry and bottles of scotch were the only items worth any money in the chest. They couldn’t recognize the names on the bottles and hoped some scotch connoisseur could help them.

They parked everything in the chest into a cleaner suitcase and returned to their remodeling venture. But it wouldn’t be long before the state heard what they found.

The Repairs

Melinda and Henry spent days repairing the kitchen. Once it was done, they took the suitcase to a close friend who owned an antique shop to see how much the jewelry and scotch would go for.

But one look at the dollar bills, quarters, and pennies, and the man almost lost his mind. “Do you know what you have on your hands?”

Their Luck

It turns out that the cash in the chest was a curated selection of 20th-century coins and dollar bills that were worth more than their face value. Among the hoard were five 1933 $10 silver certificate notes, each of which goes for upwards of $70,000.

There were also two 1969-S doubled-die Lincoln pennies, each valued at $120,000. Melinda and Henry couldn’t believe their luck! The entire state heard their story, with some folk digging into their own kitchen walls to see if any hidden treasure awaited. The question remains, what if Melinda didn’t want that open kitchen layout?

In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.