Who has an inheritance so strange, it takes years just to figure out what it is. My name is mike meister. My siblings and i inherited something that goes back to our greatuncle more than a hundred years ago. Wed always been told that it came from the white house, but it was just a family story. Hi, jamie. Welcome to boston. Thanks, mike. Nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you, too. Mike leads me inside, saying he has something amazing to show me. He keeps it in its own molded, airtight protective case. Can i take a look . Sure can. You brought me all the way here, mike. This is. What is it . Mikes strange inheritance is this piece of decorative pinewood. 30 inches long, 14 inches across, four inches thick. On the back is a faint signature and a date j. S. Williamson, october 15, 1902. Theres a real story behind it. Family legend is that its from the white house. Could that be . The white house does have a colorful past. Its nearly completed at the end of john adams presidency. He moves in in november 1800, but stays only a few months. Thomas jefferson spends two terms there before handing the keys to james madison. Then british troops set it ablaze in the war of 1812. [ indistinct shouting ] first Lady Dolley Madison orders the staff to remove this beloved portrait of George Washington by gilbert stuart. But according to william seale, author of two books on the white house, the buildings interior is destroyed. They burned the second floor with rubble, and then they broke up all the furniture and poured lamp oil on it. And the attic fell in, and then it burned through the main floor and the whole thing, in about two hours, was just a shell. After the war, the original architect, james hoban, rebuilds it exactly as it had been in what will become known as the federal style. President madison decreed that it be rebuilt as a symbol of survival. By 1817, the renovation is almost complete and our fifth president , james monroe, moves in. A dozen years later, the seventh, andrew jackson, lets a drunken mob trash the place during his inaugural ball. Maybe this poor piece of wood was part of the collateral damage. Who knows . Over the years, president s come and president s go, redecorating, repainting, and renovating to suit their individual tastes. Then, in 1902, Theodore Roosevelt begins the first wholesale restoration of the mansion that he officially names the white house. Its time to pick up the thread of this strange inheritance story. According to mike meister, in 1902, his greatuncle, Joseph Williamson jr. , is a law student at Georgetown University in d. C. One day, he strolls down pennsylvania avenue, spots the piece of wood in a junk pile, and thinks, its pretty neat. Joseph jr. Picked it up. Like a yard sale . Did they buy it . No, it was scrap. I mean, it was things that were gonna be eventually hauled off to landfills, burned, whatever. He brings it home to illinois from law school and gives it to his father as a memento. His dad inscribes his name and writes the date on the back. The piece is handed down in the family to mikes dad, wayne meister, in the 1930s. Where was it kept . It was in the basement of our house out in illinois a farm that my parents bought after world war ii. And it was hanging on a wall. I can remember being a little kid and asking my father what it was. And he would say, thats a piece of the white house. Did you believe him . Youre a farm kid in illinois, and your parents have a piece of a white house . When he said something, it meant he wasnt making things up. Pretty cool, though its just one conversation piece in a house that wayne and his wife, ann, pack with all sorts of gewgaws, knickknacks, and odd antiques. One of their hobbies was going to auctions and tag sales and finding things of value, and then, if they needed refinishing, they would refinish them. Did they ever consider taking sandpaper or a paintbrush to that mysterious hunk of wood in the cellar . Mike shudders to think. What if she decided, this ugly old thing, im gonna strip the paint . But she certainly never did. Are you kidding . That could have happened . Well, it didnt. In 1964, the meisters and a moving van full of antiques relocate to massachusetts. Its there, during christmastime in 1988, that mike, all grown up, announces hes getting married. We had a family dinner to meet the inlaws. And my brotherinlaw, Larry Forrest, was there. That night, mike brings larry into the attic. I said to larry, i want to show you something, and i took him upstairs, and i showed him. It was in a moving box from 1964. They didnt even unpack it. No, no. Mike pulled out a piece out of the box, and he said, its from the white house. And i go, talking about d. C. White house . He goes, yeah. I was just stunned. If you asked somebody whats the most important building in our history, theyre gonna say the white house. And here it was, sitting right next to me. Did mike ask you to learn more about it for him . The more we got talking about it, we said, lets find out where this came from. But its just talk, and it will be for years. Mikes dad dies in 1996, and his mom in 2001. Only then do the meister kids begin to deal with any of the old stuff their parents accumulated. Did your parents leave a will . We had a trust. Did they specify . Not in that particular case, no. To clean the house out, to send things to auction, and sell it, it was probably a good three months. But we kept a lot of the things, too, that meant something to each one of us. One of the things they keep is that distressed hunk of wood. There was no way we were gonna sell that, because we didnt even know what it was. What you think it was . An architectural element from the white house. But we had no idea what. Its not until 2007 that brotherinlaw Larry Forrest convinces the meister family they need to get some answers. And he takes on the role of lead investigator. His first line of inquiry the white house itself. I spoke to a gentleman, and i told him about what the family had. And after the laughter and telling me that that wasnt possible, i said, were pretty sure, its written on the back, and so forth. And he goes, its probably from some other old building or whatever. But larry persists. His letters, his calls turn up nothing. Then after two solid years, his search leads him to historian and author bill seale. I said, can i just send you pictures . So when he received them, he called me back and he goes, i swear ive seen it. Was it a eureka moment . Thats next. But first, our strange inheritance quiz question. The Current Oval Office was not built until 1934, when f. D. R. Was president. The answer when we return. He has a sharp wit. A winning smile. And no chance of getting an athletic scholarship. And that is why you invest. The best returns arent just measured in dollars. The answer is b, a laundry drying area. But if you said c, you might know that the first formal executive office was created by f. D. R. s fifth cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, and today is known as the roosevelt conference room. For years, mike meister was told his father had a family heirloom like no other a decorative piece of wood with peeling paint, reputed in family lore to be from the white house. The problem nobody knows how to find out if the story is true. Its become an irresistible mystery to mike and his brotherinlaw, Larry Forrest, who are determined to solve it. Larrys inquiries are all met by laughter and blank stares, until he calls author and historian bill seale. He was skeptical that it could be the actual white house. So i said, can i just send you pictures . What was your initial reaction . Well, i thought it looked suspicious. [ laughs ] and so, i didnt tell them much until i researched it. Did you say, ah, just leave it in the attic another 50 years. Itll be fine . No. No, i was too curious for that. In fact, the meisters photos have bill scratching his head. He called me back, and he goes, i swear ive seen it. Bill is remembering a particular photo from 1898, during the mckinley administration, that he used in one of his books about the white house. The photo shows a hallway called the cross hall. This is the cross hall. Its used a lot now. Started by president george w. Bush. There it is. And this is that march to the east room. In those days, you had a Grand Staircase here. And then, suddenly, bill spots it off in the corner, between a chair and a potted plant. Right there see it . Look familiar . Sure looks like mikes strange inheritance. And there it is, in the white house, in 1898, when William Mckinley is president. And there is the plinth. Its the only one it could be because its for that side. Id never heard of a plinth. What is a plinth . Its a base of a column that runs up the wall. How many were there . Well, there were four. They were in niches in the hall where originally built for stoves. Do we know where the other three are . No, nobody does. Never been seen. So now im wondering, how does the plinth get from that cozy corner in the white house to the meisters attic . Well, in september 1901, president mckinley is in buffalo, new york, at the panamerican exposition. Hes shaking hands with the public, when an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz assassinates him. Suddenly, Vice PresidentTeddy Roosevelt is sworn in. Among his many big ambitions is a gut rehab of the executive mansion. 1902 was a major reshaping of the symbol of the white house into a more worldly time. America became more international, and the white house was redone to be compatible with that. T. R. s goal is to return it to its original federalist incarnation, while clearing it out to accommodate a brood of six children and a pony. It also means separating the living quarters from our nations most important executive offices. He moved the offices out of the family floor and built the west wing. He reorganized the place so it wasnt just an Old Plantation house. To that end, roosevelts architects rearrange the entrance, removing this stairway and these victorian tiffany panels from the cross hall as well as all that old ornamental woodwork, like the plinths. The workers pile loads of rubbish outside, and souvenir hunters snatch it up. There is one letter from Theodore Roosevelt, and he said, people are scattering around for souvenirs. So bill seale is beginning to believe that the meister family lore about greatuncle joseph must be true. And that this hunk of wood really is a relic of the white house, going all the way back to 1817, when president monroe moved in after that nasty business with the british. Were you interested in it . Very. I was stricken by it, to tell you the truth. So, something that looks like wood or plaster is actually a whole story, in and of itself . Its like dna. And the object has many, many things to say. And the next step is very much like a dna test. What they discover was that this strange inheritance was a lot more important and valuable an artifact than even bill seale had imagined. Youre smiling. Thats next. Heres another quiz question for you. Which amenity was added during the Obama Administration . Was it the white house. The answer when we return. When you think about success, what does it look like . Is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student . Is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves . 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I am ready to be cured. Are you ready . Ask your hep c specialist if harvoni is right for you. Weinto a new american century. Born with a hunger to fly and a passion to build something better. And what an amazing time its been, decade after decade of innovation, inspiration and wonder. So, we say thank you america for a century of trust, for the privilege of flying higher and higher, together. [ bird caws ] its c. The White House Tennis Court was converted to a Basketball Court for the former highschool hoops player. Its november of 2009, and historian bill seale, based on this photograph, believes that mike meister likely inherited a rare and very important relic an actual piece of the white house. Its an ornamental piece of wood called a plinth that may have been removed during Teddy Roosevelts 1902 renovation. In order to verify its authenticity, seale advises the family to have the paint analyzed. So mike and his brotherinlaw, Larry Forrest, drive from boston to bryn mawr, pennsylvania, to meet with this guy, historic paint analyst frank welsh. He said, you guys go out for a little while, im gonna do analysis on it, and see what i think. Frank studies the paint layers with a magnifying glass, and then a stereo microscope, as he scrapes away each layer with an xacto knife. Then i start recording, starting with the layer closest to the wood numbering layers one, two, three, four all the way up to the most recent. Well, we got a call in about halfhour, and he goes, this is spoton. Theres 17 layers of paint on this, theres three layers of gold leaf on it. He said, theres absolutely, 100 , exactly what it should be for that time period. Everything seemed to line up very, very well. I felt very comfortable that the paints that i was looking at could easily be as old as they felt the plinth was. It is very unique. As t. R. Would say, thats bully in identifying those 17 layers of paint, frank may be the first person to open the door to a previously unknown decorative history of the white house. Author bill seale matches each paint layer with a chapter in president ial history. If you want accuracy in history, heres the real thing. This is our only touch with those periods. Bill does the math. There were 21 administrations between president S James Madison and Teddy Roosevelt. But three of them harrison, taylor, and garfield were exceptionally short due to death from illness or assassination. If the hallway isnt repainted during those presidencies, and maybe one president lacks the inclination to repaint, youve got your 17 layers right there. After generations of repeating their family legend, the meisters now know they spoke the truth all along. You went from rejection to respect. Howd that feel . We had solved a mystery. Bill seale encourages them to donate the plinth on the spot to the White House Historical association. They say theyre inclined to, but first they need to find out what its worth. Did you have a number in mind that you thought it would be . No. What about you, larry . You did all the running around. You could shoot real high on this one, just from the fact of how much historical value it has. And when the meisters get the appraisal, theyll have some thinking to do. Thats next. Whats your strange inheritance story . Wed love to tell it. Send me an email or go to our website strangeinheritance. Com. Now back to strange inheritance. By the fall of 2014 in boston, mike meister, and his brotherinlaw, Larry Forrest, have determined that a piece of wood called a plinth, handed down through several generations in the meister family, really is from the white house, and very rare indeed. But is it valuable . They take it to an appraiser. Youre smiling. Well, he appraised it at 500,000. The appraiser was an oldtime white house appraiser. I was very surprised that was more than i expected it would be. Who would buy such a thing . Someone with the money to buy it, or someone that wants to buy it and give it to a museum or president ial library. Historian bill seale is hoping the meister family will cut out the middleman, donate the plinth to the White House Historical association themselves, and take a tax writeoff. But thats a lot to ask of mike and his three siblings, who could be looking at walking away with 125,000 apiece. Are you gonna sell . Were having it put up for auction. I think in the long run, and im hoping, that itll be appreciated by many more people than might have been with the White House Historical association. The meisters reach out to Bobby Livingston at rr auction in amherst, new hampshire. When i first laid eyes on the plinth, i was like, wow its spectacular. As someone who handles a lot of historic items, when you see Something Like 17 layers of paint, it tells a story. He joins us live from new hampshire. Next thing you know, the story is getting big media coverage, including on fox news. Weve never, in 30 years, offered any pieces of the 1817 white house. Because theres no, you know, photography from that era, its incredibly important. Weve had registrations from all over the world, so we expect the bidding to be quite lively. Number 22 architectural ornament from the main hall of the white house. The meister family is on hand for the auction in boston in september 2015. 100,000, 100,000, 110,000. Here we go. 120,000. Looking for 120,000. The bidding starts to pick up a little momentum. 120,000, 130,000, 140,000. But then it just fizzles. 160,000 once, 160,000 twice. Sold, 150,000. Fantastic. Its nowhere near the halfmillion dollar appraisal, though a 150,000 is nothing to sneeze at. And mike reminds us that it wasnt only about the money but sharing a neat piece of americas past just like his ancestor, who wandered by the white house one day in 1902