Its nuts, dead center of the dining room there is black pipe right next to some old nob and tube wiring. It was as if they were not sure this new fangled electricity thing was going to take off so they were playing it safe and kept their options open. Fortunately I knew the other end was dangling in the basement. When I had an electrician put in a new service he saw the open end in the basement and said that he still stumbles across pipes that are hooked up and occasionally are noticeably leaking.