Squint Shot 040111

Well, if you have been visiting this blog for Fowlerville for very long, you will be well familiar with the Harmon building (formerly known as the Sidell block and before that the Palmerton block), and with my fascination of this 119-year old building.

Late last year, I asked Paul Harmon if I could, once again, wander through his building -- this time the basement in particlar.

As I have been going through old newspapers published in Fowlerville, I came across a reference made to Harvey Metcalf, one of the early settlers in this area, as having used the basement of the Palmerton block as a news depot for a paper he published. This would have been before 1891, when a devastating fire swept through the northeast quadrant, jumped over North Grand Avenue and destroyed enough of the original brick structure at the northwest quadrant to warrant reconstruction.

In my wildest dreams, I began to wonder if I might find evidence of anything tucked away in a cubby-hole in the basement walls of papers saved from the destructive fire. I relayed this all to Paul and he allowed me to spend as much time in the basement as I wanted to. So, with flashlight in hand and my camera at the ready, I explored all of the stone walls that I could get close to.

In the end I didn't find any loose stones or cubby-holes, but I did photograph a few interesting things I had missed in other visits. The following is one such item nailed to a wood partition on the east side of the basement close to the formerly-used coal shoot. Any thoughts on what this might be?Over the next few days, there will be more shots of some intriguing things I found -- stay tuned.