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Yesterday's squint shot showed the inside of the lid with a farm scene picture clued to it -- we were, once again, in the Harmon building, third floor. My curiosity about this suitcase keeps me wondering who it belonged too -- possibly a young gal. As shown in this picture, there's a comb and some buttons. Everything has a layer of dust and grime on it so I didn't finger anything.
I've about decided my curiosity comes from the fact the third floor of this building has always been used as a place for meetings but not necessarily a place where someone would stay overnight. So, how did a suitcase get here?

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Another squint shot -- a picture, in fact -- as my friend and I continued our tour of the third floor of the Harmon building. A year ago, I showed some pictures of an old, very worn out suitcase that sits on the floor, collecting dust and making me wonder who carried this and how it ended up where it remains.

On the inside of the lid, this farm scene can be found. It makes the suitcase seem like it was for a child and even some of the items -- which will be seen in the next few days -- indicates it may have been used by a young lass.

I may have to get back up to the third floor to take a closer look at it to see if there's any identification on it. I just hope Paul Harmon doesn't get too tired of my asking! He has been great about it.

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After looking at yesterday's squint shot of a window handle, I looked upward. There are some very interesting curtain or drapery hooks at the upper corners on the window trim. They nearly look a bit deadly!
I've looked at this picture for some time and cannot really figure out how curtains were held on this apparatus. Maybe the fabric was draped somehow -- any thoughts?

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A few days ago I showed a hinge located in a former office on the second floor of the Harmon building, formerly known as the Palmerton block. A friend and I were spending a late summer, very warm afternoon, wandering through the darkened rooms of this three-story building. There's no electricity, heating, or cooling so we were feeling the heat particularly hard that day. But it was still great fun.
As we were looking out the east windows, I noticed this hardware. Similar hardware can be seen in the old Nellie Glenn house at the southwest corner of East Grand River and Collins. If you search on "Nellie Glenn," you can find various squint shots of the inside of that house, and especially some of the hardware.

But back to the Harmon building. Along the east side of the third floor, it has been reported that some lawyers may have used these rooms as their offices years earlier. J.B. Munsell is one name that has been mentioned. Before that Judge A.E. Cole may have had an office here.

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Yesterday's squint shot showed some old wallpaper on the second floor of the Harmon building. As my friend and I wandered through the rooms, her observations zeroed in on a piece of carpeting I had probably walked on in other visits but never truly looked at. The International Order of Odd-Fellows met on the second floor of this old building and this carpeting actually looks like it may have appropriate symbols on it -- could this be from that era?

This building was built in 1891 after a devastating fire that took out the entire northeast quadrant of wooden buildings and then jumped North Grand and destroyed this building. It is the third building at this corner -- the first one was wooden and burned in 1876 (no pictures available), the second one stood until the 1891 fire and had basically the same footprint as this third building. The ones reconstructing this building may have been able to use the foundation as a guide as the previous building had the corner cut at an angle also.

If you search this blog for the Palmerton block, you will see various old pictures.

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There are layers and layers of old wallpaper peeling off the walls in the second floor of the Harmon building. There has been some water damage, making for quite a bit of mold on the walls. Unfortunately, since the second and third floors are not handicapped-accessible, they are not currently being used and so they continue to be kind of like a time capsule to an era long-gone.

But the interesting part of all of these layers -- as relayed to me by the my friend who is a bit of an expert in what wallpaper can tell us -- pointed out one of the parts of the wallpaper that created "archways." Imagine a room full of Greek or Roman columns and archways in the wallpaper and how it must have looked so formal, if not a bit daunting. Now, thanks to my friend, I will be looking for other layers of wallpaper, wondering what a room may have looked like.

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As with yesterday's squint shot, my friend and I were checking out the canopy still attached to the south wall of the second floor of the Harmon building where members of the International Order of Odd-Fellows (and at one time the Masons) would meet. The front shade, which showed red on the outside when it was pulled down, was retracted and hid by the fabric hanging from the wood structure. The whole thing is basically being held to the wall by a few screws and guy wires. No other supports are visible. Years ago, when a member of either order passed away, a Resolution of Respect would be published in the local newspaper. There is no longer an I.O.O.F. order in Fowlerville but the Masons are still here. They are now located on East Grand River, in the second floor of the building just east of the driveway for the Niblack Funeral Home.