Very, Very Old House, Built About 1550, Renovated About 1680

[bill-USA]

I'm thinking that Don Herman is probably old enough to know exactly what resides under the disputed area. I think you said 1940's concrete? Apparently he doesn't want that area exposed. He may have a very good reason.........

Even if he has no first hand knowledge, he may have heard stories as a young lad, that suddenly popped back into memory when you described the unusual area.

You should try to draw him out about his reasoning, but my hunch says if you ask more than one or two times you will be done detecting at his house.

Best of luck on getting started again!

 

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[Connecticut Sam]

Was any coins found?

 

[perdidogringo]

Was any coins found?

Please bear with me as I resurrect this very old thread started by Ed Flower 13 years ago; however, it has always intrigued me. I wanted to add a little bit to it since I am now in the colonial city (Santa Marta, Colombia) that is the scene of Ed's (unfortunately unsuccessful) colonial house search. It was pretty easy to find this particular colonial house from the photo and description he provided. The house is called "Casa de Los Virreyes" (House of the Viceroys) and you can read about it here.

One discrepancy I read online (in several places) compared to what Ed wrote was that the house was actually built in 1799, not "around 1550" (or even new "roof and plastering from around 1680"). However, I'm sure there was a building (or buildings) on the land before that, given the proximity of the house in the historical center of Santa Marta, which was founded in 1525. I've included a photo of how the house looks today for those interested.

To Ed Flowers- If you're still around, I'd love to buy you a beer!

 

[perdidogringo]

Please bear with me as I resurrect this very old thread started by Ed Flower 13 years ago; however, it has always intrigued me. I wanted to add a little bit to it since I am now in the colonial city (Santa Marta, Colombia) that is the scene of Ed's (unfortunately unsuccessful) colonial house search. It was pretty easy to find this particular colonial house from the photo and description he provided. The house is called "Casa de Los Virreyes" (House of the Viceroys) and you can read about it here.

One discrepancy I read online (in several places) compared to what Ed wrote was that the house was actually built in 1799, not "around 1550" (or even new "roof and plastering from around 1680"). However, I'm sure there was a building (or buildings) on the land before that, given the proximity of the house in the historical center of Santa Marta, which was founded in 1525. I've included a photo of how the house looks today for those interested.

To Ed Flowers- If you're still around, I'd love to buy you a beer!

Back from my trip to Santa Marta and I wanted to add that I noticed later that there is a historical plaque attached to this house. I took a couple of photos of it- The contents are first in Spanish and then English at the bottom.

.

 

[MiddenMonster]

Old thread, but common dilemma. If it was me, I'd hold off on digging up the floor, especially if it were a stone or concrete floor. The concepts of "treasure" and "digging" are conflated far to often, in my opinion. Keep in mind that along with hiding a treasure, ready accessibility to that treasure is equally important. Put yourself in the mind of the treasure hider. If you were hiding a treasure would you do it in such a way that it is a major undertaking to retrieve it? The exception would be if the house was in imminent danger of being occupied in a war or other ill fate or if the person who hid the treasure didn't plan on coming back for months or years. I'd concentrate on walls, and attic floors that are made of wooden planks where one or two can be easily removed and replaced. Also keep in mind that repeated accessing of such a location will tend to make it more and more visible to observers with repeated access. For digging I would focus on interior courtyards that are hidden from the outside world. If I were going to hide a treasure in my house I would hide it in a room that I spent a lot of time in, such as a study or master bedroom. Another place I would definitely search would be wooden staircases. I'd carefully examine every tread on the staircase, carefully feeling under the lip of every tread for a latch or other indication that the tread can be removed.

 

[perdidogringo]

Good points, MiddenMonster. I believe in this case, EdFlower was hypothesizing that there would be some treasure hidden in the (what was formerly a) dirt courtyard or other regions of the dirt flooring in the 1500s or 1600s as a result of the several dozen Pirate attacks/sieges. And perhaps the occupants didn't survive the events and the flooring was eventually cemented over.

However, we now have evidence that the structure currently on the property was built in 1799 (after the age of Pirates in the area), so any treasure within the structure itself (the walls, stairs, etc.), would be from a more recent time. But your point is well taken and this particular house was around during the independence from Spain and the formation of Gran Colombia and then followed by the splitting off of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. So lots of instability that could have resulted in valuables being hidden within the house.

 

[perdidogringo]

Found a great, detailed map of Santa Marta from 1793 and I attached a section. You can see the full map at this link: https://www.ign.es/web/BibliotecaIGN/NC445(70-mapa20).jpg.

In the section I attached, I circled in red where I believe the property searched by EdFlower was located. You can see it appears to be a different structure at that time (much bigger) than it is now (which apparently was built in 1799). Santa Marta was a pretty tiny colonial city you can see from the map.