William Pitcher Farmstead HSR

perhaps sleeping. It was accessed by a ladder or steep staircase on one side of the
central jambless fireplace, which was a common placement. The current awkward
placement of the stairs and the crude way that the anchor beam was cut to allow for
them, along with the patched flooring, imply that the staircase was previously laid out
with a turn to the east rather than west. There are square holes in the outboard side
of each step tread for spindles, verifying that the stairs are on the proper side of the
hallway. This alteration was made in the later mid-1900s to allow for the installation
of the bathroom in the main level hall. At the same time, the wall with hollow-core
doors was put up to separate the bathroom and the stairs from the entry hall, and the
stair wall was clad in 5/16” tongue-and-groove wainscot strips. There is a similarly
clad wall dividing the stairs from the east half of the stair area on the upper level.
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