A Kentucky woman was shocked to discover the antique set of doors she had in her house were harboring a “secret.”
Michaela Rose, who chose not to share her full name with Newsweek, knew there was something special about that set of doors in her Victorian house in Louisville before she and husband even moved in. “We noticed the doors as soon as we toured the house,” she told Newsweek. “They separate the parlor of the home from the living room, so it’s a big beautiful room when the doors are open.”
Rose and her partner bought the house back in October but are still finding surprises. That’s something she partly puts down to the age of the property. “Our house is around 150 years old, if not older,” she said. “Some historical records say it was built just after the civil war.”
Old Louisville is famous for having the largest collection of restored Victorian homes in the U.S. Built back in the 1870s, the neighborhood consists of more than 40 city blocks of Victorian era homes, each with their own unique features – and secrets. While Rose and her husband are pretty adept at finding these hidden features and bringing these properties to life, it took the intervention of another local resident for them to discover the secret lurking within this particular set of doors.
Rose has always loved historic homes and was excited by these doors, which are a unique type referred to as “pocket doors.” She said: “The doors work using a track on the top of the door and you can slide them in and out of the wall to close off the rooms.”
These particular pocket doors were not in working order though. “The doors were a bit tricky to get in and out of the wall,” Rose said. That all changed the night they invited a neighbor over, who shared a little known secret about the doors with them. It turned out there was a hidden button within the door frames which, when pressed, released a small handle that made it easy to open and close the doors.
“We didn’t actually know it had the handle feature until we invited our neighbor over to see the house, they had actually owned the home previously for 15 years,” Rose said. “She pointed out the feature to us and we were finally able to close the doors.”
Rose and her husband had struggled with the doors previously, so this revelation was a most welcome one. “I was honestly amazed when we found the feature, and was a bit relieved! One of the doors was stuck and I was worried we would have to damage the door to get it out, but we were able to use the handle,” she said. “It has allowed us to use the rooms as they were originally designed, either separate or as one.”
Rose took to TikTok, posting under the handle @michaela_rose05 to reveal what they had found. “We thought these pocket doors would be stuck in the wall forever until our neighbor mentioned this secret,” she wrote alongside the clip. “I posted the video to share my excitement at the feature and hopefully show others that their door might have a similar,” Rose said. I don’t know how long it would have taken us to figure it out without our neighbor showing us.”
Rose hopes the clip also encourages others to look for “secrets” of their own in their home. You never know what might be hiding in plain sight.
