WTF to do with Servant Stairs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, sorry I see I had a typo in my post. I meant do I want to keep stairs that were expressly built for servants, that seems wrong!

I could just call them stairs, but I would always know they were really meant for maids who were to not be to seen on the regular stairs. That's just kind of gross to me.

Good grief. People still have servants. You do know that, right? Do you have a housekeeper? Gardner? Nanyy? Anything of the sort? What exactly do you think those jobs are? We just don't call them servants, but those professions are to...perform a domestic service, aka serve. Servant, one that performs duties about the person or home of a personal employer.

We had these overseas when we had someone working for us for full time. You know what? They were useful. We all used them. You could cut through to another part of upstairs from downstairs. And, to be honest, if we were entertaining a more intimate crowd, we didn't necessarily need our staff interacting with those were were entertaining. It would just be awkward for everyone and it felt more private this way.

[Anonymous]

^ PS- it wasn't because we didn't want people seeing our employee or vice versa, or that she wasn't good enough for the "Real" stairs, it was just a way to separate the more public and private parts of the house. My teen felt the same way when we had people over... if she didn't feel like interacting, she didn't have to.

[Anonymous]

Timeout stairs!

[Anonymous]

Keep ‘em! I love old house details to include coal chutes, milk delivery doors, laundry chutes, hidden rooms, time capsules, all.

Same for servants stairs. Part of the home’s history. Research and find out who the servants were and the past homeowners.

My Irish immigrant great grandmother came to work as a domestic for a wealthy DC family as a young teen circa 1912. She became a beloved member of the family and worked for them for the rest of her life. Her future husband was one of their drivers. They raised their young family alongside their employer’s, accompanying the lady of the house on summer getaways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, sorry I see I had a typo in my post. I meant do I want to keep stairs that were expressly built for servants, that seems wrong!

I could just call them stairs, but I would always know they were really meant for maids who were to not be to seen on the regular stairs. That's just kind of gross to me.

Why did you buy this house?

[Anonymous]

My goodness. Alfred always uses the back stairs. My heavens!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, sorry I see I had a typo in my post. I meant do I want to keep stairs that were expressly built for servants, that seems wrong!

I could just call them stairs, but I would always know they were really meant for maids who were to not be to seen on the regular stairs. That's just kind of gross to me.

By your logic, you should have the house torn down. You want to remove the servants stairs, but use the same stairs that their masters enjoyed using? Assuming the worst and a very old house, those stairs may have been used by slaves. Does that make the stairs bad, or the rest of the house where the people who enslaved them ate, slept, and even pooped.

Have you ever heard of or seen a house in this area that has a detached, Country Kitchen where the cooking was done in a big fireplace and the slaves slept in a loft? There are several around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our new old house has those small servant stairs that lead to and from the kitchen. Do people normally take those out or live with them? They are too steep for the kids, I could make it up and down but do I really want to keep in something that was built for SERVANTS?!

make it a secret passageway!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, sorry I see I had a typo in my post. I meant do I want to keep stairs that were expressly built for servants, that seems wrong!

I could just call them stairs, but I would always know they were really meant for maids who were to not be to seen on the regular stairs. That's just kind of gross to me.

Then you shouldn’t have bought the home given the original occupants built their home with the express expectation that servants should never be seen. Disgraceful you would live in such a place.

That's absurd. What the prior residents' thoughts were bring no disgrace on a subsequent owner. It isn't like the OP is maintaining servants in the 19th century sense who are not to be seen.