THE RESTORATION of historic homes can yield interesting glimpses into the past. Artifacts sometimes emerge from hidden places in these homes.

In Sykesville, many of these artifacts find their way to Sykesville Gate House Museum of History as donations.

Recently, a framed photographic portrait of a young girl was discovered in the basement of a Sykesville house.

The portrait was wrapped in a tablecloth and stowed behind the furnace.

When the owner, Rachel Mercer, was packing to move from the house, she made the discovery and donated the portrait to the museum.

On the back of the portrait was written: "Frame and send to Camden Street c/o Baggage Man. Mrs. Jones."

Jim Purman, assistant curator of the museum, said he believes the image was of one of the three Jones sisters who lived and worked in Sykesville from the 1870s and ran a photography studio on Springfield Avenue until 1964. They were known for their hand-colored photographs of Sykesville and other Maryland areas.

Purman said the Jones family lived in the house in the early 1900s, meaning that the portrait of the young girl, carefully transported to Sykesville from Baltimore, might have remained behind the furnace for nearly 100 years.

Another discovery was in a house on Springfield Avenue.

The home was built around the mid-1800s, and at one time was a bed-and-breakfast.

Found in the basement, under a pile of lumber, were a pair of handcuffs, a tin candleholder, an old padlock, and a bayonet, apparently from the Civil War.

These items also were donated to the museum.

Nothing is known about them, although rumors have connectied the Underground Railroad to the house.

Sykesville Mayor Jonathan S. Herman owns a company that specializes in the restoration of historic homes and has found artifacts from time to time. But he jokes that he has not found any buried treasure.

While restoring Bloomfield Manor in Sykesville, an 18th-century mansion with a grand ballroom, 11-foot ceilings, and seven fireplaces, Herman found what appeared to be a small business card behind a piece of baseboard.

The card was in color and looked to be new.

On closer examination, the card turned out to be an invitation to a picnic held on the property. The date was Tuesday, Aug. 28, 1866.

The picnic committee listed on the card contained the names of several prominent Sykesville residents of the time.

The invitation apparently had fallen behind the board. Protected all these years by total darkness, the card remained intact.

Herman donated the invitation to the museum, where it was framed and displayed, but it had to be taken down almost immediately when it began to rapidly fade. It has been copied, and is in the archives of the museum.

The mayor made another find in an elaborate Victorian-style home, originally built as a cottage in the late 1800s, and remodeled by John Norwood, an agent with Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Norwood added elaborate cornice work, a two-story tower, and turrets to the home - radically changing its appearance.

While Norwood was remodeling the home, he must have left his hammer on a beam between the ceiling and the roof, to be discovered nearly a century later by Herman while performing major restoration.

What was possibly a frustrating loss of a tool to John Norwood is a valued artifact at the museum, fondly referred to as the Norwood hammer.

The museum has two other donated artifacts found in local homes.

One is a cloth sack containing smoking tobacco found in the basement of the museum, and the other is a photograph of an unidentified woman, probably from the early 1900s, discovered behind a wall of a closet during a restoration project.

But not all discoveries are given to the museum.

While cleaning out the barn on their property, Chris and John Quinn, who recently purchased the historic Obrecht Farm House, found a large framed photograph of a group of men seated on a porch. The porch bears a strong resemblance to the porch of the farmhouse.

It is possible that the photograph is that of the Obrecht family men, who in addition to farming, operated a bakery from the farm in the early 1900s and delivered bread to Baltimore. The old brick oven remains on the property.

The Quinns have not investigated the identities of the people pictured on the porch.

They are happy to enjoy their found treasure, displaying it in the living room of their restored farmhouse.

A tour of history

Sykesville will hold its historic Sykesville Christmas Tour 2002 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Homes in Sykesville and Marriottsville will be decorated for Christmas, including: Sykesville Town House; Sykesville Gate House Museum of History; Obrecht Farm House; the Inn at Norwood; and Solopha, a large farmhouse that passed through the Dorsey, Owings and Warfield families.

Tickets are $15 and can be obtained from the Town House or the Gate House Museum.

Tour maps will be available at 12:30 p.m. the day of the tour.

Information: tourism director, 410-795-8959.

Debra Taylor Young's neighborhood column appears each Tuesday in the Carroll County edition of The Sun.