I love circular stairs

[jteneyck]

My wife and I just toured "The Breakers" in Newport, RI. Saw "The Marble House", too, both built by the Vanderbilts in the late 1800's. The Breakers is a little 70+ room "cottage" made of Indiana limestone on the outside and the finest materials they could find on the inside. All the main woodwork inside is QS white oak. Marble, tapestries, artwork, nothing but the best would do. I have no idea how they did it, but it was built in only 2 years!

The Marble House was built with 500,000 cubic feet of Italian marble, at a cost of $11M - in the 1880's. And to think they only lived in these "cottages" for about 6 weeks every summer is mind boggling.

I love circular staircases and there is a spectacular one in the Breakers used by the staff.







Built in the 1890's and still looks brand new. Amazing craftsmanship.

Bonus shot of The Breakers entrance. Supposedly, generations of kids rode their tricycles around in here.



John

[Phydeaux]

Here's the most amazing circular stair I've seen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Chapel.jpg

It's in a church in New Mexico. It comes with a mysterious story, but whether the story is true or not, the staircase certainly is.

[handi]

The stair company I used to work for, we did a 530 degree circular stair for one of the big houses along the NH sea coast. It was a doozie .

Ralph

[Steve N]

For me it's the Trustee's House at Pleasant Hill Shaker village in Ky. Of course being Shaker they had to accommodate an entrance, and an uplifting stairs. Well twin uplifting stairs. One for the Brothers, another for the Sisters. Most of the structures just had straight stairs, of course in pairs, but much like you would see in a department store. Runs of parallel stairs with a landing at each floor, going usually 3 floors. The Trustee House is different in that the stairs are twin circular stairs, beautiful. They are also very difficult to photograph, for their span in width to allow for the curve a modern camera will hardly open wide enough to catch both sets at any one landing. I think the photo here is the best representation I have seen, it's a cross view. Somebody tell me the Shakers were boring






Most of the shots are similar to this.







A standard twin stairway.

[AHill]

Pele's Castle Romania:

[ianab]

Seen one made from a single piece of wood?



Bonus points if the wood is 50,000 years old.

[jteneyck]

Steve N., those stairs are the epitome of Shaker simplistic grace. Beautiful.

John

[Phil S.]

ianab said:

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Seen one made from a single piece of wood?

Bonus points if the wood is 50,000 years old.

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Kauri? Can you imagine when the island was forested with trees like that?

[ianab]

Yeah, there are still some untouched areas of Kauri forest. It only grows naturally in the upper 1/3 of the Nth Island, and doesn't form pure stands, just mixed in randomly with other forest trees.

[Steve N]

John I've never been to any of the Shaker communities in your neck of the world, but from pictures it seems that the community at Pleasant Hill had a much more worldly view, and they "showcased" a lot of work, even in their own lodgings. The Kentucky river is just down the hill from the community, and they were very advanced traders so having "worldly" things were something of a display. All that said info from the docents, and from what I have been able to read the stairs were just showing off They were known to do all of their own home building, but not so much for the worlds people.

If you've never been, and get the chance it is a great place to visit, and there are many things to do not too far away, then skip and a jump and you can hit the Smoky mountains. There the towns are touristy, but the mountains offer real beauty