Catacombs.

Caves.

Cold cellars.

Whatever you want to call two rooms dug into the base of the mountain behind 44 Susquehanna St., Jim Thorpe, most people would just say, “cool.”

Recently, Carbon County began mitigating a mold issue found in a back room of the office building, where election equipment is stored. The affected areas were removed and a plan was put in place.

As part of that mitigation, an air circulation system was installed by Sargent Enterprises of Jim Thorpe using two stone rooms that had previously been sealed off during the renovation of that building several years ago.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner, who provided a tour of the area, said the county had been aware of the rooms, however, they were not used until this airflow system was needed.

When workers opened the metal door that separated the rooms from the building, they found very wet, damp conditions from water running down the back mountain face that closed the room; as well as several items, including old doors, large animal bones and even a bottle that was still sealed and contained some type of liquid.

Ahner pointed out what appeared to be large hooks installed in the stone ceiling, and speculated that maybe before the county took over this building, that there had been a butcher shop or something having to deal with food.

“I have no idea,” he said. “I asked a lot of people about it and they really don’t know what this was. I would have thought this was a cold cellar, with the hooks.”

Historical pictures of the street in the late 1890s show that what is now 44 Susquehanna was in fact a food store, however, the name of the store was not visible.

Barry Steigerwalt, supervisor for Sargent, said that in addition to some interesting items in the rooms, his crew removed a lot of other debris, most likely from when the building was used by the county maintenance department, and mud and stone.

They constructed a small retaining wall at the back of the mountain to allow the water to collect and drain instead of flow freely into the larger of the two rooms; and then hung a perforated pipe around the perimeter that connected to a fan to circulate air and remove moisture.

“There’s no way you’re going to get rid of the water back there,” Steigerwalt said, noting that at that time, the county had not had rain in weeks and yet the water still was trickling into the room.

He added that while he is used to working on older structures due to the long history of the area, this was a first for him.

“We normally work in crawl spaces and stuff like that,” Steigerwalt said, “but not something like that back there that is as old as it is. You never know what you’ll come across.”

So what were these rooms used for?

We may never truly know.