What I Found Under My Garage Floor
I was just balancing a wet garage floor. Thought maybe the concrete had some cracks, or water was seeping in, the normal old-house maladies. Little did I know, beneath these wooden boards lay a hidden root cellar. Then I saw a handful of wooden boards in the corner of the van — old, warped, soft. Finding a hidden root cellar was unexpected yet fascinating.
They were so incongruent with the rest of the garage floor. Appeared here as if someone was hiding something. So I pulled them up, hoping to uncover a hidden treasure or maybe another hidden root cellar.
GAMES Under the Boards: Steel and a Surprise
Underneath the wood was a solid chunk of corroded steel. Heavy. Covered in grime. I managed to get it up after some wrestling and some profanity. And there it was: a pit. Five by five feet, about six feet deep, possibly a hidden root cellar.
The walls weren’t made of concrete, or stripped bare. They were built of brick lattice. Nicely spaced with room to breathe. The dirt at the bottom was moist but not wet enough. The air was cool and still.
It looked old. Purposeful. This was not a sump or a grease pit.
It Was a Secret 1920s Root Cellar
Food was stored in cellars prior to refrigeration. Vegetables, canned goods, salted meat. The lattice of bricks was to allow air to flow through, but not critters. The depth made the space cool all year.
It made sense. The garage was likely a later addition, constructed over the cellar. Someone just boarded it up and left it there as a hidden root cellar.
Others Have Found These Too
When she posted images on line, an individual responded with a tale about their former Cape Cod farmhouse. They discovered three different cellars — all of them lined with mason jars, bins of vegetables, even salted meat and homemade alcohol in crocks.
It made me curious about how many such things are still hidden under floors, in basements or behind old paneling.
What Now?
The cellar lies empty at the moment. I could clean it up, put in shelves. Or perhaps we should let it remain as a time capsule. There’s something humbling about being atop a space that used to be crucial.
People stored what they grew. They planned for the seasons. Being in that hidden root cellar was just daily life — silent, useful, essential.
Advice for Old Homeowners
If that was as long as a hundred years ago, or earlier, notice any odd sections of flooring, or odd built-ins. Root cellars, coal vaults and storage pits were frequently buried or blocked up.
If you find one, document it. Take pictures. You have discovered something about the way people lived — the way they got by, preserved the things that mattered.
Sometimes it’s potatoes. Sometimes it’s moonshine. Either way, it’s history.
