My dad is from Battle Creek.
I remember visiting my great aunt & Uncle and they had a door in their attic that opened to "nowhere".
My cousins and I thought it was the weirdest thing.
I asked my great uncle WHY... it was summer and he said " being from Southern California you'll have a hard time imagining this ... but inthe winter, we could actually get snowed in and die... so we have the door in the attic so we can just go up there, open it and walk right out on the snow"
That totally blew my 9 year old mind!!! LOL