In one of the rooms in our house there was layer after layer of floor covering. The great part about this is that the original
floors were protected for what appears to be 125 years or so. When we
bought the house the room was carpeted. When we decided to take out the
carpet, this is what we found:
Under
the carpet was linoleum painted red around the edges. I can't quite
figure this one out. The linoleum seems fairly new- maybe 1960's, and
painting floors around the edges seems more 19th century. Maybe adding a
rug and painting around the edges was a cheap way to give the room a
makeover rather than new linoleum?
The next layer is 1928 Boston Globe, probably to even out or add padding to the next layer.
Could be titled, "Here is the secret- to brain damage in young children."
Next is a layer of beautiful older linoleum with birds.
Working our way down- next is a layer of 1906 Boston Globe. Nathan Stover would have put this down. He died in 1914.
The last layer was a gold fabric with maroon filigree. It was not bound or finished on the edges and covered the entire floor. It may have provided a nice touch to The Stover's modest Victorian parlor.
Under the fabric are pine floors, which were painted gray with lead paint.
Would you believe that the mess above was transformed into the rooms below!
I hated covering over the beautiful accordion lath but we eventually had it finished with blue board and plaster.
