Rob Amaral

I see furnace-cement like that often at the boiler 'flue' clean-out cover areas often Mike... the application where cast-iron sections meet may indicate a past problem (MAY, may not). Guys tend to 'goop the crap' out of intersections of materials as both a good measure and CYA or just out of plain ignorance... no way to tell (unless you saw SOOT marks near related)... With a lot of these things, the phrase "we cannot predict performance moving forward' is going to include ......

We had (1953) the ol' Western Electric 'dial' phone MO-8-_____. No area code... it was a party line... often you'd pick it up and there would be two parties in conversation.... The 'phone company' was for quite a while there, a major 'good' thing until it got 'busted up'... An old timer in the phone company here in Boston was worried that the 'break up' (of Ma Bell) would lead to massive 'service' issues during storms, etc. It turned-out alright actually.... Those are great biz cards... probably saw-sharpening-guys I'd imagine..

Cola-colored stains on 'some type of stucco-like exterior finish' (Usually leads to a 'not good' thing). Hopefully this is NOT EIFs. See all the above....

One of the old-school good-eggs in the Boston errea... Kind guy with a good sense of humor and humility . Honorable life.

Has the 'essence of Howard, Fine and Howard" fine cabinetmakers...

Great stuff....

What country was it made in ?

ZOTZ DOTZ ! Good One... I too seem to have the same Karma goin on....I don't have a picture but a few weeks back, I found a bootleg bathroom ON THE ROOF of a flat-roof three decker in South Boston (no ceiling, no heat) and the water supply pipes were routed up an in-use brick chimney from 1900 (no liner)... Oy.. The drains were mickey-moused into the apt below....

Great !

That's an amazing 'catch' of the greatest-generation 'gettin it done'.. !

Best wishes on the change! Amen on the USPS... 'good move'

Thanks for posting....

Dried sap

Jim's right... Chicken-wire reinforcement... often we'll see the date of the manufacture on them... we see them every week around here.. We also see the precursor----stone sinks, same size/shape, etc.. (usually with cracks)... but the reinforced-concrete beast is more common.. I even had one here in my 1961 ranch that I had to tear-apart ... pain in the gluteus maximus

Ditto all above... but let it slide...I'd be more concerned about conditions conducive to termites at the entire system under there..... you may want to pro-actively do something about that and let this slide.....