First, signs that Diana and Joseph Infante's 1949 midcentury modern in Long Beach, Calif., was somehow musical are everywhere. Next, leather books, 1920s clothing, hats, dolls, toys, art, confederate money and letters are just the beginning of what Susan Stillwell finds in the attic of her 1913 prairie-style home in Danville, Va. Then, when Maria and Reginald Sprecher move into their 1890s Queen Anne in Waukesha, Wis., a little bird tells them their house has a story to tell—actually, two little birds on the fireplace! Finally, when Marilyn and David Stansberry move into their 200-year-old house in Charlotte, Tenn., they soon discover strange letters carved into a wall, an odd collection of handwritten books and an entire bag of 19th-century mail.