I am on the second floor of an old house in the northeast USA. There is another one at the entrance to the second floor, this at the backdoor. The button looks like a bell but what is the hole for?

Here are some of the answers:

1. One of them said: Honestly you might be able to speak into it and hear whoever is at your door when they speak back

2. One of them also said: How old is your house? Looks like a C. 1920s light switch. Are there modern light switches underneath both? The light could have come out of the hole long ago (screwed in there, maybe a lantern-style electrical light)

3. Other response was: Perhaps just another eyehole or peephole. Like a handicapped accessible hole.

4.The other answer was (maybe the right one): There’s a tube in the walls that connects the two ends so one person talking loudly into one end can be faintly heard through the other end. I’ve lived in several old houses in the Northeast where these are still in place, and the mouthpiece always looks the same, just like this. Around here they are most common in multi-floor, multi-unit walkup houses. The placement of the buzzer button underneath is a clue. Think of these as a pre-electric intercom speaking tube. At the upper end, there is often another button to activate a remote door lock so the visitor can be let in without having to go downstairs (having already recognized their voice through the tube) However, many of these no longer work very well, or at all. Any renovations or wall work, falling chunks of plaster, or other debris can break or block the sound from getting through. It is not some kind of electrical switch. If you were to look behind the wall you’d see a large diameter hollow metal tube, often made of sheet lead or tin so it could be gently bent around obstacles to get to its destination through the framing of the house.

These are some of the comments we found on the internet. That doesn’t mean they are all correct. Anyway, what do you think is the right answer and solution to this? Please leave a comment on our Facebook post and let us know your opinion!

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