YARMOUTH, N.S. — Yarmouth County homeowner Mariah Morningstar made a surprising discovery four years ago before buying her house, which was built in 1869.
Curious about what was beneath the loosely laid carpet and linoleum in the Hebron house, she lifted a corner and found dozens of copies of decades-old magazines and newspapers spread out over wide-plank floorboards.
With some dated as early as 1929, there were copies of the Chronicle Herald, The Canadian, The Journal, Chatelaine, Country Gentleman and others.
The advertisements were especially fascinating: rooms at the Empress Victoria Hotel in Victoria, B.C. for $2.50/night, a full page dedicated to pairing Kraft Dinner with seafood (a can of salmon), plus paper dolls and Mickey Mouse cartoons.
After buying the home, Morningstar decided to create something special with her discovery.
“I felt they should be presented as opposed to being just stuck in a box somewhere,” she says.
She chose the “brightest, prettiest ones” for the project.
“I knew I was sacrificing them because they wouldn’t maintain their perfection, beauty and legibility, but they needed to be displayed and they needed to be here forever. That was my feeling.”
At the local Home Hardware, she described what she wanted to do and a clerk suggested polyurethane.
She tested one corner, brushing poly on the boards, placing the printed sheets on top and then three layers of poly on top. The text was still legible and the paper glued down nicely.
The project took six to eight months and was done in sections so Morningstar and her teenage son Atreyu could continue using other parts of the room.
Now that the floor is done, it always draws comments from visitors.
“It’s always a conversation piece. I’ve had kids actually get down on the floor and read them. No adults yet. People always pick out different things, which is really neat. There’s so much to see,” says Morningstar. “They’re all fun.
“I had a family come through here once and the kid said, ‘The floor’s a mess!’ and the mom’s like Shhhhh!’
“I said, ‘No, that’s totally fine,’ because it is a mess, an organized, intentional mess.’”
Even though the sheets have worn down a bit – dog nails and sunlight have taken their toll – she says the effect is still pretty cool.
In retrospect, she thinks if she had put tape over the space between the floorboards and then laid the printed material on top, the paper wouldn’t have ripped in those places.
“But it’s still legible and it’s still fun. I can always paper over it a bit more, right?”
She says she’s sad that the “Men Don’t Want Clever Wives” article got beat up.
“That was one of my favourites,” she chuckles.
Formerly from Yarmouth County, Morningstar owned the Urban Cake cupcake shop in Whitehorse four years ago. She now owns Blue Ribbon Baking, specializing in gluten-free baked goods, that she sells at the Yarmouth Farmers’ Market.
Her home, which she calls Wellington Manor, was owned by Willard Doane, a farmer, from 1927 to 1979. Lalia, his widow, resided there from 1979 to 1982 and her son Clarence lived in the home until he passed away.
