Nothing screams broken neck like soapy marble stairs. I can't imaging climbing them in the rain.
72 2 ReplyWith no handrails, apparently.
60 0 ReplyYeah this is the part that bothers me the most
29 0 Replyyou know how they say that safety regulations are written in blood? here's an early example of building codes, or lack thereof
9 0 Reply
That's not soap, they're holystoning the porch.
10 0 ReplyHolystoning is done to wood, not marble.
2 0 ReplyMaybe, but in the rain those would be slick. That was my point.
3 3 Reply
Those are the cleanest, newest stoops I have ever seen.
When new stoops are built, they already look more worn out than this.
42 1 ReplyApparently they're marble!
23 1 ReplyLike… solid slabs??
Worth more than the whole house.
18 0 ReplyFound an article about them from a few years ago. https://www.wypr.org/2021-12-06/a-stone-cold-mystery
6 0 Reply
Probably because they're not built from marble blocks. Was marble not a premium construction material back then?
4 1 Reply
two things that strike me about this photo, the lack of any people of color, and the fact there were fleets of housewives home, just hanging out
36 1 ReplyAnd those surprisingly well dressed kids cleaning some of the steps. Must have been a hired service?
15 1 Replyneighborhood kids, picking up a little extra cash, along with what they made from their newspaper routes, easily paid for 4 years of university education (with room and board and books)
23 0 Reply
Of course there are no people of colour, it’s a black and white photo
13 0 Replythe lack of poc is by design. actually this photo could be right after a black person was seen walking down the street.
2 0 Reply
Any extra information on the photo? The trees in the background would likely be Patterson Park.
19 0 ReplyThe picture has been making rounds, but I just found a research article that uses it while talking about the East side of Baltimore.
22 1 Reply
Alright, alright.. we'll build you some stairs, but NO railings!
19 0 ReplyIs this AI generated?
14 3 ReplyDidn't look like it
2 0 ReplyYeah but like those stairs just scream unsafe. Like weirdly unsafe.
Even for the 50's.
Why are there no handrails?
AI is getting pretty good.
edit but this isn't AI, it's just weirdly unsafe. https://mdhsphotographs.tumblr.com/post/6113325836/scrubbing-the-white-marble-steps-baltimore
1 0 Reply
Was marble cheap back then or something? Those stairs are worth thousands of dollars each.
11 1 ReplyLooks like Hamsterdam from the wire
10 0 ReplyBeat me to it, Bubs. Was gonna say Hamsterdam is lookin clean here.
3 1 Reply
An ADA lawyer would be filing an accommodation lawsuit for each unit. It'd cost the landlord $40K/unit on average.
8 2 ReplyShould have spent some of the solid marble stair budget on simple wooden ramps.
7 0 ReplyAda wasn't til 1990. These would all be grandfathered in unless they were governmental stuff.
6 0 ReplyADA didn't exist
1 0 Reply
Interesting. Condos were a thing in the 50s
3 0 Reply