BACK TO BASICS A Victorian Tour Tony Wiersielis, CPL, CFDI, provides an overview of antique locks in a NJ bed and breakfast. Well, there are four pieces of furniture in this room alone that, between them, have nine locks in total. We’ve been staying at this place since New Year’s 2007. It wasn’t until I started writ- T ing for Keynotes in 2010 that I noticed the quantity of antique locks that seem to be on every piece of furniture that has a drawer or door in this place. I’m at a loss as to why they did th an answer, either. Any reader who m A Brief History his month, I want to take you on a tour of one room in a fully restored 1880s Victorian house. This house is a bed and breakfast that my wife and I like to stay at in Cape May, NJ. We usually go for a long weekend in the spring and fall. You might be thinking, “What could he show us in one room?” [email protected], and I’ll add that infor- mation to my next article. I wish I could show you how I made keys for these locks. This place is about 120 miles from home, and I’d have to take the locks with me and send them back with the keys. Unfortunately, I don’t know the new owner so well that he’d be willing to do that yet. I’m working on that. If any of you have locks similar to what you’re about to see and you’re not do- ing anything with them, contact me via email. If you send them to me, I’ll send them back with a working key if it’s at all practical. This way I can show how the keys are made in future articles, and I’ll mention your name and send you some- thing you’ll enjoy. One thing: Fitting keys to a lock you send me is something I would do in my spare time. If you need this for a customer who needs it next week, I can’t help you. If you’ve got someone willing to wait, that’s a different story. Figure 1. In the 1970s, the building was purchased by a young couple that completely renovated it and turned it into a bed and breakfast. The building was built in 1872 as a “gentleman’s gambling house.” WWW.ALOA.ORG Figure 2. Local history tells us that gambling was legal at the time, but in the 1890s, it was outlawed. The cupola on the roof of the house had a 360-degree view, so it became a lookout for any approaching police. Figure 3. The law also stated that you had to be in or touching the building in which the gambling took place to be arrested. Notice the curious design of the ground- floor windows. They are floor to ceiling; the bottom sash is about six feet high. Also notice there’s no railing around the porch. If the police were coming, one needed only to walk through an open window and jump down from the porch to avoid arrest. JANUARY 2019 KEYNOTES 49
