Did you ever hear of a house with a door just for your mother-in-law?
Whaddya at, b'y — this is St. John's, oldest city in North America, and we're still here. Let's go.
Now, you know how we are around here, always a bit different, always a bit clever, eh? Well, I gotta tell ya, this one tickled me right proper. You know da old houses, da ones tucked into da cliffs around da Battery or climbing up toward Signal Hill, all colorful and a bit crooked? You'd sometimes see a little door, almost hidden, on da side or back of da house that didn't seem to go anywhere important from da main floor. Turns out, some folks are saying dese "mother-in-law doors" weren't just for da in-laws, b'y.
### Da Taxman Cometh
Turns out, some folks are speculating dat back in da day, dese doors might've been a way to make part of your house look like a separate unit, a whole different dwelling, to avoid paying certain property taxes. I mean, think about it: if it looks like two houses, maybe it gets taxed like two smaller, cheaper units, instead of one big, expensive one. It's a bit of a laugh, ain't it? Only in St. John's, eh, where we're always finding a way around da rules, or at least a clever interpretation of 'em. It makes ya wonder what other little secrets are hidden in da walls of Water Street's old buildings.
* This isn't about outright fraud; it's more about how folks interpreted rules.
* It speaks to da ingenuity, or maybe da stubbornness, of Newfoundlanders, b'y.
* It's a look back at how we lived, and how we tried to make ends meet in tougher times.
I'll tell ya one thing, b'y, dis is da kinda history you won't find in da Rooms, but it's part of what makes our city so unique. It's da kind of thing people talk about down by da harbour, or over a pint on George Street. It's our own little bit of St. John's lore, woven into da very fabric of our jellybean row houses.
Deirdre Molloy-Waddleton, MiTL Sports Desk, St. John's.
You can hear da lads on da Morning Wire talkin' about dis and more every day, b'y — mornings.live is where it's at.