As part of the fire restorations they have been cleaning and sealing the old light-wells in the building. Once upon a time these shafts let natural light, via frosted windows, into the kitchens, bathrooms, and hallways in the building. The wall in our kitchen where the windows were has long since been replaced, but in most of the apartments (like my old one) the windows are still there, with the glass painted over or replaced with mirrors. Yesterday they were working on the shaft that used to bring light into our kitchen, pantry and bathroom. I spoke to the guy doing the work and he said that he found newspapers from 1946 in one of the shafts. There is a small hole in our kitchen where a fan was mounted, and prior to this work starting I stuck my camera in and took some pictures of the well.