1C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017
CONTACT US
WEEKEND
FOLLOW US
BREAK
RIDDLE ME THIS...
Rebecca Sedlak | Weekend Editor
rsedlak@dailyastorian.com
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
THE PUZZLING POSITION OF THE PHANTOM STAIRCASE
By GAIL HENRIKSON
The Daily Astorian
I
have always been a building hugger.
Over time, however, I have gained a
deeper understanding and appreciation
of how similar old homes are to people.
They bear the emotional and physical scars
of the inhabitants with whom they have
interacted over the decades. They refl ect the
proclivities and aesthetics of previous own-
ers and occupants. And, like the majority of
us, they rarely reveal all their secrets during
a fi rst encounter.
There are even times when buildings tell
us half-truths or outright lies about their his-
tories and ages. I’m sure it’s not a deliberate
attempt to deceive, but more likely a by prod-
uct of our own self-absorbed biases and
opinions. After all, it is much easier to work
with preconceived notions than to invest the
energy and effort to learn the truth.
A case in point is the house my partner,
Rick Crawford, and I own. I have developed
a fascination with two very perplexing mat-
ters. I blame this on having read too many
Nancy Drew books as an impressionable
youth. This instilled in me not only a wildly
out-of-date fashion sensibility, but also a
life long belief that mystery and intrigue lurk
around every corner.
Phantom staircase
The fi rst case is The Puzzling Position
of the Phantom Staircase. The suspect stair-
way is in a circa-1920 Craftsman house. It
runs from the second fl oor straight out to
the back yard. Initially, we thought this was
how it was originally constructed, although
it appeared not to have been used for several
years. Even though it wasn’t practical for
day-to-day use, it had certainly been expedi-
ent when we moved furniture upstairs.
After the initial move-in, we basically
ignored this stairwell — until we noticed
the phantom stairway. It’s a slanted, wood-
backed area that runs parallel and above the
stairs from the mudroom to the basement
and would seem to be a remnant staircase
from the second fl oor. The problem is that
such a layout would have run directly into
our existing back staircase.
Clearly, a mystery was afoot. A mystery
that makes no sense, unless we are living in
the Astoria version of the Winchester Mys-
tery House.
Over the course of several months, we’ve
considered various scenarios, ranging from
the highly logical to the outright ludicrous.
We have measured walls, looked for and
found hinge marks indicating where doors
once swung, and pondered over perplexing
paint marks.
Submitted Photo by Rick Crawford / Deftly Daft Productions
Two staircases?
W riter’s
N otebook
Several theories
Our current theory is that the back stair-
case stopped just short of the original back
wall of the house, turned to the left and
exited into what today is the mudroom. We
also suspect that there was an interior door
to the basement, which has been removed,
along with those accompanying stairs. A
third hypothesis is that there was also a back
door out of the basement into the back yard.
That theory would explain the strangely bur-
ied concrete steps under the back deck, but
we can’t fi nd any evidence of a door ever
having been there. Nor can we imagine how
these three stairways could have converged
in the same small area. We know that some-
thing has changed, but we can’t quite pin
down what and how it has changed.
Every time we think we have The
Answer, some new piece of evidence pops
up, and we fi nd ourselves back at the Asto-
ria Mystery House theory. Eventually, we’ll
solve this conundrum by taking the backing
off the phantom staircase. In the meantime,
it provides an intriguing diversion.
Showcase sign
Recently, we were distracted from our
stair-sleuthing by another puzzle — a case I
call The Secret of the Showcase Sign. About
a month ago, we decided to paint and add
shelves to an under-utilized upstairs closet.
When we started closely examining the
space, we thought we had found the miss-
ing stairway to the attic. However, we later
learned that the closet was added after the
original upstairs hallway had been closed
off.
Curiously, the plywood shelf in this
makeshift closet was actually part of a sign.
The portion we have reads “Originals Inc.
Coast’s Showcase of Oregon Talents” in
red and brown lettering on a yellow back-
ground. There also appears to be the bottom
part of a tree in the upper right corner. Aha!
Yet another mystery to be solved!
Aladdin Readi-Cut
Advertisement for knocked-down kits
for houses, in Popular Mechanics, May
1908.
North American Construction Co./Aladdin Houses
Aladdin Redi-Cut home advertisement
featured in The American Magazine,
March 1915.
Both Rick and I have done hours of
research trying to solve these riddles. We’ve
learned about Aladdin Readi-Cut kit homes,
found Sara’s Old Photos on Facebook, and
read about a local court case in the 1960s
involving two local fi shing vessels — the
Betty and the Eagle. All very interesting
subjects in their own right, but of no imme-
diate relevance to the cases at hand. Then
again, is knowledge ever irrelevant? Perhaps
the best lessons we’ve learned through our
detective work are ones we already knew —
open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance.
Virtues we would all do well to remember in
these times.
Gail Henrikson is happily and gainfully
employed as an ad designer at The Daily
Astorian. In addition to previous contribu-
tions to the paper, her poetry has been pub-
lished as part of the Hoffman Center’s Word
and Image project and in the North Coast
Squid. She and her partner, Rick Crawford,
live with the Feline Four in the aforemen-
tioned enigmatic staircase-challenged house
in Astoria.
Submitted Photo by Rick Crawford / Deftly Daft Productions
The back door and the marks where the hidden door might be.
Submitted Photo by Rick Crawford / Deftly Daft Productions
A sign found in a makeshift closet.