Mystery faces found during building renovation

DAYTON–Renovating an 1896 building yielded a pleasant surprise last week.

Kim Lyonnais, who with colleague Blaine Bickelhaupt, is renovating the former Frontier Too Tavern at 211 E. Main Street, found some interesting items stashed within a wall.

There were several celluloid negatives of the five by seven variety, and one smaller, pictured here, caked with the caked-on dirt and gunk that might be expected following a hundred years lying within a wall. There was also a calendar for Lavoris mouth wash, suggesting one of the previous occupants, Elk Drug.

A print of a woman, gazing out from a time long ago, is in a "Godard's Studio Dayton, Wash." Mat, its crumbling and faded forest green framing the black-and-white print of the woman in black with what appears to be a fox stole around her shoulders.

One of the several negatives shows a family of four, a handsome gentleman, his wife and two children.

According to local historian Liz Carson, the 1909 City Directory indicates that the Smith-Hunt Saloon was at 211 E. Main Street. Her research indicates a Wallace Caswell Godard was the proprietor of a pharmacy, presumably Elk Drug, at 219 E. Main Street, just next door.

Godard was still in Dayton, according to the 1920 Census, but was a jeweler; no longer proprietor of a pharmacy.

It would be logical to conclude that Godard, in his spare time, operated a photographic studio, and that some of his work was either accidently or purposefully placed in the wall.

Carson attested that she's heard of local lore to indicate that people placed photos within walls, for what reason is unclear, but perhaps to support the favorable ambiance of the place.