Secret rooms and compartments from way back, unexpected rooms and spaces from the past.

 Imagine the excitement of finding a letter from a previous homeowner, intended for your very eyes after you’ve bought an old house. There’s so much history in these places - you pray it’s not a grisly murder disclosure, and you’re thrilled to be informed of old hidden cabinets and entrances to bonus spaces you would have never discovered on your own. The amazing perks of super weird old school funky architecture!

A couple named Courtney and Matt recently had their hay day on TikTok as they shared this event unfolding in their lives after they purchased a 130-year-old home from a historical society. The letter broke down a handful of the old home’s hidden treasures including a secret liquor cabinet with ancient wine in stock, and a secret door by the toilet leading to a full-on other room!

Courtney and Matt are an extreme case, but today it is not uncommon for folks who purchase old houses to discover original architectural quirks that surprise and delight them. These can be as simple as unfolding an ironing board from the wall (common in homes starting in the late 1800s) or finding a disposable razor slot in the wall of your powder room.

As we get further from the times these features were used, they seem stranger and more bizarre.  Where did these features originate? Why is there a razor slot on the wall? Where do they go? Well, the answer is in fact, weird.

In the late 1800s, men commonly went to a barbershop anytime they wanted a shave. In 1903 Gillette changed the game with the invention of the disposable razor. Shortly after its introduction, it became commonplace to build a slot for said disposable razor to be disposed of directly into the wall.

The weird part is that the razor blades go on to reside in the walls of the house FOREVER. There’s no place to access emptying abilities, those suckers fall into that bathroom wall and silently rust until that dang wall comes down. During the time of the disposable razor slot invention, there was no regular trash service. People regularly composted and burned household garbage, which left them few options to dispose of the biohazard razors. If you do come upon a slot in a house, remember the razors of a dude from 100 years ago are still chillin in that wall! Not spooky at all. Onto the ironing board, do we have an app for that yet? Ever opened a cabinet expecting to find shelving and have an ironing board unfurl towards your face? 

On May 12, 1874, an African American inventor named Elijah McCoy patented a thing called an ironing table. He was getting creative in response to his wife being bummed on uneven ironing surfaces messing up her process. As homes were small, and you only need the board while you are in the act of ironing, the feature that folds it up easily was its greatest advantage. An ironing board was so frequently used in the early 1900s, they were much like a oven, a necessary appliance. As such, they were built into cabinets so one only had to open the door and unfold it from the wall. It was convenient and efficient for people who ironed every day. It’s common these days for owners of historic homes to remove the board and build the shallow cabinets into spice racks or some such storage for dry food in the kitchen. The company Whirlpool has recently marketed reproduction fold out ironing boards mimicking the dimensions of the original for folks who want to bring the ironing cabinet back to its intended purpose. The existence of bizarre old school features in historic homes gives us so many cool opportunities to learn about how people 100 plus years ago lived and why. It’s rich and interesting and a little bit spooky and we are here for it.