'I miss you so': 1930s love letters found in bathroom wall during Ohio home renovation
If these walls could talk, they would murmur sweet nothings.
They might even swoon a little.
A home renovation project in Akron, Ohio has unearthed a secret cache of love letters from the early 1930s. Let this be a cautionary tale for young romantics: If you don’t want anyone to read your notes a century from now, don’t hide them in the woodwork.
Debbie and George Farris, who have lived for 37 years in an English brick home in Akron's Merriman Hills neighborhood, are getting their bathroom remodeled. Since buying the 1930 house in 1987, they’ve had contractor Mark Anderson do several projects, including building a deck, refinishing the basement and modernizing the kitchen.
“So we were ready to do this bathroom, and we called him,” Debbie said. “He knows this house pretty well.”
Hidden in the wall
The owner of Anderson Carpentry & Remodeling has been working on the upstairs room since early December. The expansion includes building a shower in a space formerly occupied by an adjacent bedroom closet.
Anderson was cutting a wall with a reciprocating saw when a tattered bundle of papers fell onto the floor near his feet.
“I didn’t even notice,” he said. “I was whaling away.”
Emily Anderson, who with her sister Carolyn helps their father at work, happened to be taking pictures of the project when she spotted the dusty clump in the debris.
“Something just looked different, so I ended up picking it up,” Emily said.
When she unfolded the fragile pages, she noticed handwritten phrases such as “My Darling” and “I love you.” One was dated Sept. 20, 1931.
“I was like, ‘Wow!’ ” Emily said.
Mark Anderson has found other objects inside walls during remodeling projects. He’s discovered old newspapers, beer cans, razor blades and even a coffee can filled with Depression-era money.
But this is the first time he’s found letters.
“Maybe somebody didn’t want anybody to see,” he said. “Who knows?”
Emily took the bundle downstairs to show Debbie, telling her: “You might really enjoy this.”
The women examined the pencil-written letters, which have gaping holes from the passage of time and the nibbling of long-ago rodents. With words on both sides, the three pages appear to contain two notes. There’s also the frayed remnants of the envelope in which they had been folded.
One yellowed page is in fairly good shape and bears an Old South Bond watermark from the Hampshire Paper Co. of South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts.
“This is written to Alton,” Debbie said.
“On this one, it says, ‘My dearest,’ ” Emily said.
Contents of love notes
The 16-year-old sender, Ernestine, writes from an address on Oakdale Avenue in Akron.
“Dearest Alton: How are you, my dear? I miss you so,” one letter begins.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, Ernestine expresses concern about the health of her pet dog.
“We took Minchie to the vet this afternoon,” she writes. “She hasn’t been acting so hot lately. He gave me some worm medicine for her. I’ll tell you the reason later. It’s such a sweet little devil! I’m loving it more every day.”
Ernestine says she finally received mail from Alton “almost a week from the time you left,” and thanks him for the “kind and sweet” letters — “just the kind I like.”
“It’s been so lonely here,” she writes. “I wish I could see you right now and feel your arms around me.”
Ernestine then writes about going with friends to the greyhound racing track in Brimfield Township, seeing the movie “Street Scene” at Loews Theater in downtown Akron and having a big meal at home.
“You’ll never know how much I miss you,” she writes. “Please write more often, dear. I’ve watched the mail every day and cried because I didn’t get any. Why? Honey, I love you. I miss you so. I’ll always love you and want you just as I do now, dear. I’ll watch over Minchie and watch for the mailman till we meet again — and kiss.”
The other two pages are difficult to decipher because of large, jagged holes. The second note appears to have been written in the summer of 1931.
The remaining fragments hint at a military separation between the couple.
“I’ll be loving you every second,” Ernestine writes. “I think it’s a swell camp and will do you so much good …
“Understand, honey. I want you to come back rested and feeling fit. Do you recall the signs in the mess hall? …
“I love the necklace that you gave me and I wore it all night and kissed it before I went to sleep.”
Printed in large block letters on the back of one page is the sentence: “I HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN HOW WE USED TO WRITE OUR LOVE.” That might be from Alton.
“It looks like different handwriting,” Emily said.
“This looks like a woman’s writing,” Debbie said, pointing to Ernestine’s flowery script. “And this looks like a man’s.”
They believe that Alton unscrewed an access panel on the upstairs wall outside the bathroom, tucked the letters on a ledge and sealed the compartment.
The papers remained hidden for more than 90 years until the remodeling project knocked them loose.
Secrets revealed
So who wrote the letters? Who received them? And what happened to the couple?
Alliance native Margaret Ernestine Minch lived at the Oakdale Avenue address in 1931. The 16-year-old daughter of Phillip and Lauretta Minch was a student at Garfield High School. Her father was a printer and her mother was a former schoolteacher.
Her boyfriend was Hugh Alton Pardee, 19, a recent West High School graduate who lived across the street from the Woodside Drive address where the letters were found. His father, Henry A. Pardee, a building contractor, constructed both houses as well as others on the street.
Henry Pardee had planned to move into the new home in 1930, but his second wife, Nellie, filed for divorce, alleging neglect. He married his third wife, Hazel, a housekeeper, six months later.
The Pardees apparently rented out the home across the street. It’s possible that Alton, also known as Hugh, stayed there between vacancies.
In March 1931, H. Alton Pardee enlisted in a Citizens’ Military Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. The summer program allowed young men to receive military training without committing to active duty. That explains the references to camp in Ernestine’s letters.
Alas, as often happens with young love, the couple did not remain together.
Alton moved to Cleveland, where he met Violet Anne Hay. In 1935, they got married in Hancock County, West Virginia, and later welcomed two children: Herbert and Patricia. Alton served in the Army and worked as an electrician before the family moved to the state of Washington.
Hugh Alton Pardee died Feb. 15, 1994, in Tacoma. He was 82.
After graduating from West High in 1939, Ernestine married Dr. George M. Crouch, a chiropractor who was 14 years her senior. In a strange coincidence, they initially resided on Palisades Drive about a block from the former Pardee residence. They had two daughters: Andrea and Helen.
Ernestine was active in Akron Woman’s City Club and belonged to Philomena at Westminster Presbyterian Church. She served on the King School PTA and led a troop of Brownies at the elementary school.
She was only 53 when she died in 1968 after a two-month illness.
Postscript on Woodside Drive
After more than 90 years, the truth has come out.
Debbie and George Farris now know the origin of the mysterious letters in their bathroom wall on Woodside Drive.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Debbie said. “I’m really happy to hear that you found the backstory for these two young lovers.”
She said she couldn’t wait to tell her neighbors, especially the ones across the street in the former Pardee home.
Who knows what else might be waiting in the walls for the next renovation project?
“This is really fun,” Debbie said. “I like being part of this.”
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Home renovation reveals hidden, secret love letters
