An Interesting (and Sentimental) Find; Part II

After finding the key to my grandparents apartment front door, I remembered I had a box on the shelf above my workbench with another goody from the old house. It was the crank door bell. It was mounted in the center of the heavy wood front door to the house, and when you spun the knob on the outside, the bell on the inside clanged like an old style wind up alarm clock.

Both pieces with decades old multiple layers of paint. The inside of the door was white, so the bell was painted to match. The outside of the door was brown. It will all be stripped back to bare brass.

Detail of the inner workings with the gong removed. The inner and outer halves were connected by a square shaft. The mechanism is worn and stripped and in need of my magic touch to work again.

Also in the box were keys. I immediately recognized what they were for. First is my Papa's well worn house front door key. I know it was his because of how worn the head is. He carried his keys (unless he was dressed up in a suit), on his belt like I do. My Nana had hers either on the shelf in the kitchen, in her purse, or in the car ignition.

You can't see it in the photo, but the worn spot in the middle once said "Russwin"

Finally, the skeleton key to my grandparents apartment back door. It was smaller than the one for the front door and shows very little use. The house had a an interior back staircase and there was a door to enter the apartments on each floor. My great-aunts and uncles and my grandparents mostly used the back stairs to go between apartments. The back entry door to the house was always locked and only opened from the inside to go out in the backyard, so the back apartment doors were never locked. That door had a deadbolt, a throw bolt, and a bar across it to ensure it would not be opened from the outside. Initially this key was left in the door, until the time when I was about 5 years old and thought it was funny to lock my Nana out of the apartment in the back stairwell. After that the key came out of the door and was in a glass with other important little things in the pantry.

My plan is to strip off all the paint, restore the bell to working order, and mount it on a nice piece of hardwood like it was on the door. The front door keys will be mounted on the front side, with a nice brass plate engraved with the address and the years my grandparents lived there. The back door key will be mounted on the back side, maybe with another engraved brass plate with my great-aunt and uncles last name and Apartment 1, and my grandparents last name with Apartment 2. I have had this stuff for almost 12 years, I think its high time I get busy on this little project.