Those are the cleanest, newest stoops I have ever seen.
When new stoops are built, they already look more worn out than this.
Probably because they’re not built from marble blocks. Was marble not a premium construction material back then?
Apparently they’re marble!
Found an article about them from a few years ago. https://www.wypr.org/2021-12-06/a-stone-cold-mystery
Like… solid slabs??
Worth more than the whole house.
No, blocks right 4ft long 10 wide and 6 or 8" tall.
Under the steps given the age might be a cold room like my house and many like it from the same time period.
Like only under the steps and the size of the steps, or a full room which is partly under the steps?
Cool either way…
Depends but in my area it’s the width and depth of the stoop. With the cracks and gaps between blocks acting as your vent.
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
the lack of poc is by design. actually this photo could be right after a black person was seen walking down the street.
And those surprisingly well dressed kids cleaning some of the steps. Must have been a hired service?
neighborhood 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)
Of course there are no people of colour, it’s a black and white photo
Nothing screams broken neck like soapy marble stairs. I can’t imaging climbing them in the rain.
With no handrails, apparently.
you know how they say that safety regulations are written in blood? here’s an early example of building codes, or lack thereof
Yeah this is the part that bothers me the most
That’s not soap, they’re holystoning the porch.
Maybe, but in the rain those would be slick. That was my point.
Holystoning is done to wood, not marble.
An ADA lawyer would be filing an accommodation lawsuit for each unit. It’d cost the landlord $40K/unit on average.
Should have spent some of the solid marble stair budget on simple wooden ramps.
ADA didn’t exist
Ada wasn’t til 1990. These would all be grandfathered in unless they were governmental stuff.
Any extra information on the photo? The trees in the background would likely be Patterson Park.
The picture has been making rounds, but I just found a research article that uses it while talking about the East side of Baltimore.
Alright, alright… we’ll build you some stairs, but NO railings!
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Is this AI generated?
Didn’t look like it
Yeah 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
Looks like Hamsterdam from the wire
Beat me to it, Bubs. Was gonna say Hamsterdam is lookin clean here.
Was marble cheap back then or something? Those stairs are worth thousands of dollars each.
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“The white steps of Baltimore have become the city’s trademark and a marvel to visitors. Most of them are white marble, from nearby quarries, and homeowners vie in keeping them bright. In any block, there is seldom a day that someone is not out scrubbing them. On the older houses, the scraping of countless thousands of footsteps has worn grooves in the stone. 2000 block of Penrose Avenue in West Baltimore.” Source - the photographer’s website
Interesting. Condos were a thing in the 50s
