Old houses often come with architectural anomalies. In our case, it’s access to the upper floor. An extension built in 1844 removed the original stairs in the living room, replacing them with a curved staircase in, of all places, the dining room. An odd design choice, but perhaps the only way to create stairs between the two bedrooms rather than in the middle of one of them. The stairs begin with a sharp left turn and end with a hard right or left into a narrow hallway. The angles are abrupt and unforgiving.
I sympathize! We moved a couple years ago out of a nearly 200 year old expanded "trinity" in Philadelphia with three sets of completely curved stairs. But while we figured a high-rise condo would make moving a breeze, compared to the harrowing hoisting of furniture in and out of the third floor window, our vintage sofa barely (phew!) fit into the miniscule "freight" elevator, and no chance of hoisting anything to the 21st floor.
Love reading about your house!
P.S. I found those old curved stairs completely described in this excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz' poem , (translated by Robert Hass) "The Stairs" from his cycle, "The World," describing the world of his childhood in Lithuania:
Yellow, creaking, and smelling of wax
The curved steps are narrow. Near the wall
You can place your shoe crosswise
But near the banister they hardly hold your foot.
P.P.S. Tell Chris I am taking (and even enlisted a friend to join me) courses at the Rosenbach, thanks to his recommendation. A fantastic resource in Philadelphia I didn't really know about.
Great to hear from you! And yes, The Rosenbach is a fantastic place. If you run into Kelsey, the newish and exceedingly capable executive director, please give her my best. I was reminded of our little gang (especially Larry) when, while staying above a pub in Rye, we stumbled across Henry James’ house. I know he’s a big fan. And I do stalk the emails of the book group, and if you’re still Zooming, may pop in if that’s allowed. Right now I’ve been reading a lot of Stefan Zweig and Raymond Chandler. Anyway, I hope things are fine for all of you and I admit I felt a twinge of envy when I saw the upcoming Eric Owens concert at PCMS. Cheers!
Looking at that dresser: is the drawer part set on/screwed into a plinth? My family lived in a Victorian with my bedroom on the 3rd floor whose access stairwell stopped just short of being a ladder with a small landing and another ladderish few stairs. We too became adept at taking furniture apart then reassembling it!
That's some stairwell, Tui. We had visions of elaborate four-poster beds in these rooms, but ultimately settled for headboards/footboards that could be more easily assembled.
I sympathize! We moved a couple years ago out of a nearly 200 year old expanded "trinity" in Philadelphia with three sets of completely curved stairs. But while we figured a high-rise condo would make moving a breeze, compared to the harrowing hoisting of furniture in and out of the third floor window, our vintage sofa barely (phew!) fit into the miniscule "freight" elevator, and no chance of hoisting anything to the 21st floor.
Love reading about your house!
P.S. I found those old curved stairs completely described in this excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz' poem , (translated by Robert Hass) "The Stairs" from his cycle, "The World," describing the world of his childhood in Lithuania:
Yellow, creaking, and smelling of wax
The curved steps are narrow. Near the wall
You can place your shoe crosswise
But near the banister they hardly hold your foot.
P.P.S. Tell Chris I am taking (and even enlisted a friend to join me) courses at the Rosenbach, thanks to his recommendation. A fantastic resource in Philadelphia I didn't really know about.
I love that poem, Gayle!
Great to hear from you! And yes, The Rosenbach is a fantastic place. If you run into Kelsey, the newish and exceedingly capable executive director, please give her my best. I was reminded of our little gang (especially Larry) when, while staying above a pub in Rye, we stumbled across Henry James’ house. I know he’s a big fan. And I do stalk the emails of the book group, and if you’re still Zooming, may pop in if that’s allowed. Right now I’ve been reading a lot of Stefan Zweig and Raymond Chandler. Anyway, I hope things are fine for all of you and I admit I felt a twinge of envy when I saw the upcoming Eric Owens concert at PCMS. Cheers!
Zoom pop-ins encouraged! Including Dec. 7th, 11:00, House of Mirth.
We’re familiar with narrow stairways - especially from our time in Amsterdam! And happy substack anniversary!
Thanks Boaz. And oh my yes, I can imagine Amsterdam's housing stock would be rife with narrow stairways!
I also have a turn in my staircase that makes it challenging to haul things up the stairs. Old houses!
That's it exactly, Beth. Old houses have many charms as well as unexpected challenges.
Looking at that dresser: is the drawer part set on/screwed into a plinth? My family lived in a Victorian with my bedroom on the 3rd floor whose access stairwell stopped just short of being a ladder with a small landing and another ladderish few stairs. We too became adept at taking furniture apart then reassembling it!
That's some stairwell, Tui. We had visions of elaborate four-poster beds in these rooms, but ultimately settled for headboards/footboards that could be more easily assembled.