Odd spaces a window to the past

There are certain spaces that homebuyers crave, like giant kitchens and expansive walk-in closets.

And then there are the spaces that turn up unexpectedly, especially in some older homes — spots like bomb shelters, smokehouses and outhouses.

These can open a window into history, giving a fresh sense of how people once lived. The bomb shelter recalls a time when Americans feared nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union and imagined how to survive in a scorched landscape. The smokehouse tells of a time when Americans didn't buy their meat at the supermarket, but butchered it and smoked it to preserve it.

And the outhouse tells about life before indoor plumbing.

Quite often, homeowners find new uses for oddball spaces. Tom Johnson of Liberty 100 Realty in Waldwick, N.J., recalls selling a house where a secret staircase connected a closet on the first floor with a closet on the second. The owner lined up her shoes on the steps.

A Ridgewood, N.J., Tudor listed by Beth Freed of Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty includes an elevator, which the owners use as a linen closet.

Old bomb shelters are sometimes converted to wine cellars. Ruby and Bobby Kaplan of Teaneck, N.J., store old clothes, toys and household items in theirs. In Bobby Kaplan's words, it's "a nice, cool place for junk."

The shelter is a surprise in the Kaplans' large stucco house, which has been so extensively renovated it looks nearly new. (The seven-bedroom home is on the market for just under $1.5 million because the Kaplans' three children are grown.)

The Cold War hideout has thick concrete walls and a 21/2-foot-diameter corrugated-metal tunnel, which leads beneath the lawn to the outside. Bobby Kaplan recalls that when the couple first moved into the house, he was in the yard with the dog when the dog suddenly vanished. He had fallen into the bomb shelter tunnel, which the family later closed up.

Bomb shelters were built in the 1950s and 1960s as places to escape nuclear fallout. A photo from the National Archives shows a cozy model, with a table covered by a checked cloth, two neatly made bunk beds, and shelves stacked with canned food. Magazines are piled on the table, to help pass the time underground.

And in 1960, Popular Mechanics magazine offered readers advice on how to build a shelter, saying: "An underground shelter having at least three feet of earth or sand over it, plus adequate door and air filter, will give you almost complete protection."

Nickie Lisella's Allendale, N.J., house came with a bomb shelter. "I thought it was cool when we first saw it," says Lisella, a manager with Terrie O'Connor Realtors in Allendale. "I figured if anyone dropped a bomb, we could save our family."

Buyers often are drawn to extra spaces, especially if they're big enough for a variety of uses.