It began like a lot of homeowner nightmares.

Alexandra no longer lived in her childhood home, but she inherited it from her parents

and rented it out to tenants who kept the place filled with laughter and memories.

But like a lot of renters, they soon reached out with requests to have certain things repaired.

First, it was the heating oil tank in the basement, but while the workers were down there,

they noticed that the sewer main needed replaced.

After that, it was something more concerning.

There were cracks in the foundation walls visible in the basement, and cracks in the thing

that's meant to hold up your home is never good news.

Alexandra made a phone call to a Mason Re company to have the damage repaired, but that

project led to one final discovery.

A second basement, hidden beneath the first, and its discovery triggered a research project

that took her on a journey into the past, because her tiny little Pennsylvania village

had deep connections to the underground railroad, and there was a good chance her own basement

was one of the forgotten stops along the way.

History aside, there's something incredibly attractive about hidden rooms and false doors,

whether it's the room of requirements from Harry Potter or the giant X that literally

marked the spot for Indiana Jones in the last crusade, the thrill of discovering that

which was once hidden is something we never really grow out of.

But while secret tunnels might make sense in a film like Clue, they aren't that easy

to bump into in real life.

Unless you know where to look, because history does hold the key to a number of secret chambers,

...