I have an IBM 3151 video terminal connected to mine, through a USB-to-serial adapter. I use it for Web browsing, reading text files, light code editing/trying ideas in REPL, ssh to my desktop, etc.
At first, I wanted to connect the terminal (on the upper floor) to my desktop (in the basement) by patching the server's RS-232 to the terminal through the in-wall Cat5e. Then I figured it'd be better to just throw FreeBSD on the Pi and connect the terminal to it, since I could ssh to the desktop with Ethernet instead, which is a more effective use of the two Cat5e runs, since I'd also be able to connect a VoIP phone next to the terminal.