My young friend on a construction crew, was renovating a building in a small Iowa town. The place had been retail on the main floor, but had closed 20 years before and never redeveloped. The 2nd floor was the original downtown developer's office space, the 3rd was defunct Masonic lodge with peepholes, railings, bell hooks all still in place.

But the 4th floor was an apartment, closed and untouched for 50 years. The widow who had last lived there, was evacuated by the fire department when the stairwell collapsed (and put in the poor home). So her apartment was untouched from that day.

The boxes in the pantry were amazing - old stick-figure marketing characters from the late 1950's. Soap powder, cleaning supplies, tissues etc. all brands I didn't recognize.

The floor and walls were grey and faded, but behind and under the refrigerator they were still fresh and proved to be wild art-deco patterns. The refrigerator itself was weird - the shelves were lazy-susan style that revolved.

I was struck by how spartan it all was. She had just 2 forks, 2 spoons etc in the kitchen drawer. Just a couple of plates and bowls in the cupboard. A wardrobe with 2 or three changes of clothes. And that was about it. Not so much consumerism back then I guess!

Anyway it's all gone now. But it was cool to tour it (I had driven down to give him a lift, his truck had gone in a ditch and he offered to show me around). Had to climb external construction scaffolding to get up there, go in through the fire escape door. But it was worth the look!

My wife (then fiancee) and I found something similar in the attic of an apartment building in Cincinnati. Didn't have to go through a wall and it wasn't locked, but once inside the attic had low ceilings and looked untouched since the 1920s. I'm sure people had been up there but it was full of antiques and had what looked like original wallpaper everywhere. Very old rotary light switches too.

I friend of mine worked in law enforcement. Her specialty was documenting crime scenes. Gruesome stuff. Think architectural as-built drawings with every drop of blood rendered.

She absolutely delighted in finding cubby holes, hiding places, stashes. Often missed during initial investigations.

Was there any clue as to why it was blocked off?

A lot of these old homes people would make smaller (drop ceilings and things like that) to make them cheaper to heat. One theory was that they just weren't using it and didn't feel like heating it.

Or maybe during some renovation someone didn't feel like dealing with it.