Day 376 - Stair Hall

 


August 27, 2024

At last I find in gallery 741 a period room I really like, a "stair hall" measuring perhaps 20 feet by 18 feet from a house built in Buffalo in 1883-1884. Is it the fact that it's lit well enough for me to see it reasonably clearly? The warmth of the cherry and oak wood paneling? The pilasters and striated grain of the wood veneer above the mantel, echoed in the spindles and pilasters lining the staircase? The cushioned benches flanking the fireplace (an arrangement called an "inglenook," I learn) that appear to offer comfortable seating beside the hearth? The light-colored stone of the fireplace itself? The varied geometric shapes - squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, and diamonds - in the paned windows? (The windows in the stairwell employ a different, equally refined geometric design that largely consists of octagons enclosed in circles.) The low ceiling that conveys a feeling of coziness? 

Or - and this is less flattering to me - is it the fact that I know that this room and the house from which it's taken were designed by McKim, Mead, and White, and that I also know that I'm supposed to admire their work? Well, I do.

But - I note that the eight stairs leading up from this level have no railing.  If the house belonged to me, I would have one installed asap.

The Met website tellsl me that the house was demolished to make room for a corporate parking lot.

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