Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get a servant and put the stairs to use?
This. Servants aren’t illegal- unless you are not paying them.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I honestly always wanted them when I was little because the families on Full House and the Cosby Show had them and I desperately wanted to be in those families/houses that I thought were so awesome!
That's so funny. I used to live in a Victorian in Shaw that had kitchen stairs, and I remember a 7-year-old visitor saying, "you folks are just like the Cosby's." A family we were nothing like.
Anonymous wrote:Get a servant and put the stairs to use?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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?!
Sure. Why not? Just call them what the rest of the world calls, them..... stairs.
Yeah. Or "the back stairs."
Also, what the hell is wrong with servants? I mean, I now just use a cleaning lady, instacart, daycare and ubereats, but its just another name for the same job(s).
I don't think it is quite the same as having someone scurrying up and down back stairs because they weren't good enough to be with the rest of the people in the house.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Any concerns about your Master bedroom?
Damn. Never have thought that is where the term came from.
It came from Sears in the 1920s. Has nothing to do with slavery. If anything people should be pissed that it’s a male descriptor. There’s no Madame Bedroom.
Wait is that true? The term master bedroom was invented by Sears?!
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I completely get the OP being weirded out. It would bother me to have slave quarters out back too. “Servant” is a euphemism for slave, if the house is old enough.
No, it's not. Servants were paid, employees. Additionally, as a PP said, things like back stairs weren't created just to reinforce class structures but to keep coal/human waste/food out of the way. It's not as if servants weren't allowed to set foot in the main stairways, its that the running a giant victorian house required a lot of people doing a lot of work. Just like we have freight elevators now, back staircases allowed for work to be performed without damaging things.
If the home was built before 1860 these were absolutely not paid employees.
And seriously, “work to be performed without damaging things”?! The point was to hide the help. I don’t care what the OP does with the staircase but let’s be honest about history.
Your history is questionable at best, particularly since OP never stated where her house is located.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I completely get the OP being weirded out. It would bother me to have slave quarters out back too. “Servant” is a euphemism for slave, if the house is old enough.
No, it's not. Servants were paid, employees. Additionally, as a PP said, things like back stairs weren't created just to reinforce class structures but to keep coal/human waste/food out of the way. It's not as if servants weren't allowed to set foot in the main stairways, its that the running a giant victorian house required a lot of people doing a lot of work. Just like we have freight elevators now, back staircases allowed for work to be performed without damaging things.
If the home was built before 1860 these were absolutely not paid employees.
And seriously, “work to be performed without damaging things”?! The point was to hide the help. I don’t care what the OP does with the staircase but let’s be honest about history.
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.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I completely get the OP being weirded out. It would bother me to have slave quarters out back too. “Servant” is a euphemism for slave, if the house is old enough.
No, it's not. Servants were paid, employees. Additionally, as a PP said, things like back stairs weren't created just to reinforce class structures but to keep coal/human waste/food out of the way. It's not as if servants weren't allowed to set foot in the main stairways, its that the running a giant victorian house required a lot of people doing a lot of work. Just like we have freight elevators now, back staircases allowed for work to be performed without damaging things.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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?!
Sure. Why not? Just call them what the rest of the world calls, them..... stairs.
Yeah. Or "the back stairs."
Also, what the hell is wrong with servants? I mean, I now just use a cleaning lady, instacart, daycare and ubereats, but its just another name for the same job(s).
I don't think it is quite the same as having someone scurrying up and down back stairs because they weren't good enough to be with the rest of the people in the house.
Oh for the love of god.
Ok, remove the second, useful set of stairs because of some assumed value judgment you have assigned to some previous occupants you don't know, haven't met, and whose perspective you know nothing about.
Right? “Look everyone at how woke I am. This house used to have servant stairs but that offended my sensibilities so we boarded them up.”
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.
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.