The 92 year old, 191 stairs and a historic piece of the lower West Side neighborhood in St Paul, has closed and is in the process of being dismantled. A steel beam was damaged earlier in May when a huge chuck of the limestone cliff damaged the structure and cracked a gusset plate. Sadly, this small icon of St Paul will be lost. Growing up very close to these stairs and playing on them quite often, it is sad to see this happening. My friends and I would have a stop watch, race to the bottom and back up to see who was the fastest. It was a grueling workout and I often saw people using the stairs for exercise.
So far, about a third of the structure is gone, plus the walkway from the bluffs to the main stairwell. If time permits, I will return tomorrow to photo graph the progress. There is talk of raising funds for a replacement stairwell by the two US senators of Minnesota, Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar.
The green stairs have been a favorite location to shoot photos from. The view is a classic downtown St Paul view.
Night time shot from the top of the green stairs
Day time shot from the top of the green stairs
Sad, your other pictures showed what a great view the top had. Hopefully they will rebuild.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen these stairs, but I hate to see them go. They look like serious fun and exercise!
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