A couple has shared their shock after uncovering a 100-year-old secret when carrying out maintenance work on their home.
They explained how contractors uncovered 14 love letters hidden underneath the floorboards in their basement -and when opening them, they realised one of the previous homeowners was up to no good.
Taking to Reddit, the homeowner said: “My wife and I are trying to read through them and piece together a timeline. It seems like some sort of affair as the owner of the house we live in was a married man but these are definitely love letters.
“Some letters explicitly say to destroy which he apparently disregarded. They were hidden up in the floor joist of the first floor of the house accessible only from the basement.”
While the previous homeowner’s partner would have been left heartbroken by the letters, the man says it gave him a giggle when reading them. He added: “It’s almost become a little history lesson, we are researching the original owners of our 100+ year old house.”
After sharing the letters on social media, users urged him to track down the mystery couple to see how their relationship ended up. But he say this is impossible because there isn’t a return address anywhere on the letters and the only clue he has about either of their identities is the name ‘Freddie’.
One user commented: “He must have been a player because the hand writing is different on most of the envelopes.” In agreement, the man said: “There are two authors apparently. The bulk of the letters are signed by someone called “Freddie.” No return address, no further identification.”
Further commenting on the find, one user said: “There may be a local historical archive which would be willing to caretake them and make them available to researchers once you’ve read them. These are the kinds of papers which people dispose of (or hide under floorboards) as historically insignificant – when in fact they are the opposite.
Another user added: “This sounds like such a cool find!” A third user said: “Omg that’s hilarious. They say destroy, they weren’t, and now some nosy, rude, humans are reading them! That’s fantastic.” One more user said: “I once renovated an office, and above the ceiling tiles there was a whole paper trail of an affair between the boss and the secretary.
“A big stack of letters and cards were put together that detailed their whole history together. The most interesting part was a Valentines Day gift made out of Post Its. They were coupons that could be redeemed for things like a massage, or a walk at the park…but one of the coupons said ‘You can have me any time, any place…anywhere’. I remember thinking ‘Any place refers to the location, so why did they also put anywhere? Oh, it’s a coupon for butt stuff’.”
