The old courthouse windows in my town looked completely different after a single rainstorm

I drove past the historic courthouse in Springfield every day for a year and never really looked at the windows. After a heavy rain last Tuesday, the sun hit them just right and I could see the whole grid of the old, wavy glass panes perfectly. It made me realize how much dirt and grime had built up over time, completely hiding the original character of the glass. Has anyone else had a job where cleaning revealed a detail you didn't even know was there?

3 comments

3 Comments

amyc222mo agoMost Upvoted

Cleaned a layer of dust off an old library book return slot once and found a tiny, hand-painted "1912" date underneath. It was just a grimy brass plate before that.

noahchen26d ago

That's awesome about the "1912" date, @amyc22. I love finding stuff like that hidden under years of grime. It reminds me of this old hardware store I used to go to. They had a wooden floor that was so dark and sticky from decades of oil and dirt. One day they decided to sand a small section for a repair, and underneath was this beautiful pattern of original oak boards laid in a diamond shape. Nobody had seen it in probably 70 years. It's crazy how much history gets buried under normal wear and tear. Things like that make you wonder what else is hiding in plain sight.

jesse_barnes372mo ago

Read about a church that cleaned centuries of soot off their walls and found medieval paintings of stars.