This photo from 2003 shows three triangular shapes that were built into the wall of a building at 211 Pearl Street in New York City. This section has been painstakingly preserved from a 175-year-old building in lower Manhattan and the brickwork symbol is, at least to some, a smoking gun in a tantalizing historical whodunit. (AP Photo/Edward St. Marc)

Symbol in NYC building a history mystery

 

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 23, 7:13 AM ET

 

NEW YORK - A final thrust of the crowbar cracked the wooden crate open, and the architect, the anthropologist and the mortar expert leaned in to look at the oddity that had drawn them to an out-of-the-way warehouse.

 

It was a 3-foot-by-10-foot section of timeworn brick wall, its predictable rows abruptly interrupted by three distinct, deliberate-looking triangular shapes. Once part of a warehouse, it now does nothing but raise questions...

 

:police:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070723/ap_on_re_us/history_mystery

I would have just made the crazy symbol for the hell of it to mess with people.  I bet the dude that designed it is laughing in his grave right now.

 

Where is this artifact now?  Is it removed from the site or still on the now retrofitted building?

 

But on a serious note, it is kind of cool to leave stuff that might have significance down the road.  For example, when my firm renovated an old abandoned structure, we didn't erase or paint over the graffiti on the interior, just walled over it.  Someday, many years in the future those walls will be ripped down exposing the graffiti once again, and it might be valuable.

My old house was built in 1926, and the woodwork in the livingroom and diningroom was all 100% original. One day, after I had been living there for several years, the sunlight hit the molding around the doorway in the livingroom at such an angle that I could see a perfectly formed handprint set into the 80-year old laquer.

 

When we renovated our kitchen we wrote a message on the wall about who we were and when we did the renovations. The writing was concealed when the new counters went in, and  before the gap between the wall and cabinet was caulked we slipped photos of us down behind.

 

Now I just freaking wish someone would actually buy the house and discover it all.