The Almost Stairway to Heaven

This is a true story. The above photo shows a cast iron staircase similar to the one discussed in today's blog but it is not the actual one.


Twenty-six years ago I owned a group of four historic Victorian buildings in the Capitol Hill area of Denver which included a massive two story carriage house. The prior owner attached a two story cast iron staircase to the front side of the carriage house. Our German Shepard Gertie would regularly sit on the second floor rear landing observing what was going on in the world outside of her yard. While the gate kept her inside the yard, she knew her job was to sit as sentry.

Every spring we would fill wood boxes with trailing flowers which would cascade over the rails. Each morning before going to work I would drag the garden hose up the stairs to water the flowers and the water the other bushes and flowers. Gertie would spend her day on the second floor and occasionally go the garden to patrol - that's what German Shepard's do.

A light was affixed atop the iron newel post at the bottom of the stairs. The rails, balusters and steps were either rescued or purloined from the Brown Palace Hotel when the hotel lobby was renovated. The prior owner of the my properties had been a bellman at the hotel during the renovation. Multiple sections were removed. It is hard to imagine they could have been stolen, but one never knows.

I noticed that Gertie would always jump from or to the second or third step each time she went up or came down the stairs. I thought is was some game she invented to amuse herself. I remember the one day I was heading up the stairs after watering the flowers while me feet were still wet. I think I hit the second step when I felt an electric shock and leaped up to the next step. I called my partner who came out and then we both tested the stairs. Yep - they were electrified.

I called an electrician who came over and fixed the problem. The lamp at the top of the newel post had developed a slight shock which then electrified the cast iron staircase. Had the current been higher both Gertie and me may have taken our last steps on the stairway to heaven.