Secret Spaces: Down the Rabbit Hole in Prospect Park South

Have you ever wanted a trapdoor that leads to a secret room? Have you ever wanted a hideaway behind a rotating bookshelf in your home?

Well, two homes in Prospect Park South have these coveted secret hideaways.

The New York Times featured in its article, “Five Secrets Revealed”, a house built in 1901 on Buckingham Road in Prospect Park South, which has 16 rooms and one of seems to be right out of Lewis Carroll’s book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland." 

The room has a four-foot high door. The owner, Sharon Spellman told The Times, “To go through it, you have to duck down practically to your knees.”

But once through the kid-sized (or white rabbit!) doorway, it opens up into a full-height space. But of course, Spellman has dubbed the third-floor room “Alice in Wonderland.”

Another home the paper featured was a Victorian house on Westminster Road, also in Prospect Park South.

The owner, Eric Schiller who is an architect, noticed an outlined section in the shape of a rectangle on the first floor staircase landing. Upon further inspection, Schiller found a tiny thumbhole. He lifted up the section of the oak floor and discovered a ladder leading down to a four-foot-deep space lined with shelves. 

Was this space used to hide alcohol during the prohibition? Schiller thinks so. 

Does your home have a secret trapdoor, hidden closet or a tunnel that leads somewhere? If so, send pictures to Will.Yakowicz@patch.com or upload them to Your Neighborhood Gallery.