What those old newspapers tell us about ourselves
Pages pulled from old walls give glimpses into the history of homes — and the city
This year, the Ottawa Citizen — the capital's oldest continuously operated business — marked its 175th anniversary. This article is part of a series of stories celebrating the newspaper's past.
I remember the day when a 1935 Ottawa Evening Citizen popped out of our bathroom wall, resurrecting former breaking news of Joe Louis and Winston Churchill.
Workers who were renovating the bathroom found one section folded in four with news on the front, sports at the back and intriguing advertising (full-course dinner, 29 cents at Zeller's) throughout. A Toronto Star was tucked in there too, the whole mix yellowed but surprisingly readable.
And those aren't even our home's oldest newspapers. We have an odd set of linen drawers built into the wall of our upstairs hall, and one of these is lined with a 1928 Citizen, varnished against the wood and somehow intact after 60-plus years. I've put a layer of clear plastic over it for protection.
Who ever thought that a plain three-bedroom house could be an archeological site?
Yet they are. Just break through some old plaster in any older neighbourhood and have a look.
Herb Lagois has done this over and over again.
“Reminds me of growing up in an older home, log construction with lots of retrofits including the fake tar-based brick exterior,” said the president of Lagois Design-Build-Renovate. He used to find many walls lined with newspaper to stop drafts, and wishes he had kept more of them.
“We were kids exploring an old abandoned house and we found a map from the 1800s of the Ottawa area,” he said. “What is cool about the map is that it shows the names of all the property owners in Ottawa!
“Unfortunately, part of the map was water-damaged, but it hangs in our office. Many clients have enjoyed looking at the map over the years — always a conversation piece.
“Every so often I take the time to study it,” he says. Each time he feels “a renewed appreciation of our history.”
“Over the years, we have found all sorts of little things remodelling older homes — mostly newspapers, occasional dollar bills (or) coins.” He gives them to the homeowners.
“Years ago when I worked on sites, I loved finding writing, usually on the inside of walls, often just a name and date: for me it really put a personal touch on the home, imagining how folks were able to build homes without all the modern tools we use.”
Newspapers were used mostly to stop drafts rather than as full-scale wall insulation, he said. They must have worked; when his company tests old homes for air-tightness, they're usually fine despite the lack of major insulation, except for some drafty windows.
“If I could do one thing over, I wish we took pics of newspapers,” Lagois said.
“The newspapers are really something because you can read them, and it has dates and it has a real look into the past,” said Norm Lecuyer, president of Artium Design Build.
“They were used for blocking holes and air flow and insulation. What did you grab? A newspaper, and stuff it somewhere. And we find those. I'd say a good majority of the older home jobs, we find newspapers.
“We give them to the customers.” One that sticks in his memory is a 1914 edition, which his company framed for the customer. On the front is news, but on the other side of the page is a review of the play Birth of a Nation, which portrays the Ku Klux Klan as heroic. (A film version followed in 1915.)
The reviewer liked the show, “which is kind of interesting — a look into the past and what people thought back then.”
They find “cool-looking” castiron nails, forged by blacksmiths or cut by machines. And “we've found love letters and turn those over to the customer. Hopefully didn't get anybody into trouble, like Grandpa.
“That's where you hide stuff. We have found plenty of liquor bottles. Found a pipe once inside a wall. Railway tracks holding up houses,” from wartime when steel was in short supply.
“Coins. They (all these artifacts) are of the home. They are of the people that lived in the home. We find a lot of writings. It was very common and it still is for people to sign their work, so we'll find that `so-and-so built this house in 1932,' usually on the wood inside or behind walls. It's exceptionally common and very cool to find that.
“So it is a history of the home. Not a full history, but it goes to what people are like and that they're thinking, and who they are sometimes.”
He has never found treasure, “but there are emotional treasures, like postcards.”
And here's a warning, he also finds a lot of dead things. Mice, largely, but also squirrels, groundhogs, raccoons, that got in and could not get out.
“Life cycle. Got to die somewhere. Might as well be warm,” he said.
And they find walled-over doors, some leading through the attic or basement to the attached home next door, “which is kind of creepy.”
Front pages were full of national and foreign news in the old days, lots of quick-hit stories of 100 to 200 words — like web news hits today.
My favourites are the local stories. The place names are familiar, but the cadence of the language sounds funny to our ears. It's still Ottawa, but not quite my Ottawa.
For instance, the Rough Riders were playing the Argonauts in the International Rugby Union in November of 1935.
And Joe Louis came to town on the train from Montreal. He didn't fight a match, but he sparred with four different partners and fans were able to watch. It got top billing in the paper's coverage over the actual match, and Louis didn't let the fans down.
He warmed up gradually against the first two opponents, the reporter notes. Then in stepped the third, who lasted a minute and a half. “A right to the jaw lifted the Newark heavyweight off his feet and deposited him on his hands and knees on the canvas.
“Andy Wallace was the fourth opponent, and he was staggered with lefts to the jaw before finally going down with a left to the stomach. Wallace was moaning when he went to his knees,” and the referee “stopped the show right there.” Louis went on to Toronto.
Even historians notice these old tales. Real historians.
“Newspapers are one of the sources that are basically used across the board by historians,” said Matthew Hayday, who teaches history at the University of Guelph.
He said researchers often use old papers to learn “how are people constructing gender norms and gender identities, or how are issues around food consumption being presented to Canadians at different times? What is showing up in the advice columns in terms of how to parent, and what proper decorum looks like?”
And, always, they look at the letters to the editor — a cross-section of public opinion that was not recorded much in other historical documents. “We know what the people with power did … ( but) we don't always know what the common person thought of those events.”
“This is why there's big money to be made by the companies that are doing digitization of old newspapers,” such as newspapers.com.
Pretty hot stuff for an old bathroom wall.