Hi everyone. I have a friend who told me that double staircases in old old homes existed because it was considered improper to even see a womans bare ankles - men would go up one staircase and women up another to avoid such exposure. Is this true?
I am not exactly sure what you mean by double staircases. Do you mean two staircases in the same entryway or do you mean two separate staircases in two separate rooms? I am assuming that you mean two seperate rooms (so that men could not see the ladies go up the stairs). I have been forced to go on several old home/plantation/mansion tours by my girlfriend whenever we visit a city. In homes in which there were two staircases, one was described as the one that the servants used. It was generally towards the back of the house and was usually near the kitchen or pantry.
I always thought that these were for servants and the served.
I mean two seperate staircases that went to the second floor hall/balcony. I always thought of it as a double helix shape that didn’t make it very far. They usually start not too far from each other and curve upwards to the next level.
Lets try this. Take your hands and a make parentheses ’ ( ) ’ shapes that are pretty close together. Thats the general shape/style I was thinking of.
And I would think that this architecture was mostly in the times of grand mansions and plantations when both money was abundant and gentlemanly chivalry was highly valued (not that anyone I consider ‘gentlemanly’ would own slaves, but you get the idea).
I took that type of double staircase to keep a sense of symetry, and also to show off a sense of grandure. But that’s just me.
A tour guide in Charleston, SC made a similar claim to the OP’s during a tour I took a few years ago, but I’d certainly like to hear from a more authoratative source.
That’s just for decoration.
It’s a waste of space as well, so by wasting all that space you say that you can afford to 
As described by the OP, there’s probably no practical reason for having two staircases, beyond those already mentioned – symmetry in appearance, conspicuous demonstration of wealth, etc.
As a former residential contractor, I’ll point out that staircases of any type, and especially open, ornate ones, are extremely labor-intensive structures. In today’s economy that translates into serious money, and thus most folks forgo the fancy stairs option. (If you want verification, try to hire a really good finish carpenter.) 150 years ago, however, labor was relatively cheaper and elaborate staircases were more affordable. Add to that the cost of materials; a showy stairway requires the very best lumber – straight-grained oak, walnut, ash, etc. Aside from appearance, softer, cheaper woods (pine, fir) simply won’t hold up. While high-quality hardwoods were plentiful and cheap in the 1800’s, they are not today.
Another factor is that houses in general were once meant to house a family for life, even through succeeding generations, whereas today the average family relocates four or five times. If you’re only going to build one house and you know you’re likely to die there, it’s probably easier to spring for the fancy stuff.
A counterpoint to this theme can be seen in Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s house. Jefferson, ever practical and also usually broke, considered stairways to be simply tools for getting from one floor to the next. His stairways were plain and so narrow that, when I toured the house twenty years ago, we weren’t allowed to use them because they didn’t meet the local fire code for width.
Tbone2 wrote:
I have a front and a back stairway in my house. The back staircase serves a very useful purpose. I have three children, aged 21, 18, and 15. The boys are all over 6’1", and my daughter is a 5’8" and still-growing ice hockey player. These people make a lot of noise clomping up and down the stairs. They are all respectfully asked to use the back staircase after 9 PM at night, so as not to wake me up!
In this case, the practical use of the back staircase is to diminish conflict in our house. It’s also fun for playing chase games with our Border Collie.
It’s more fun to take the dumbwaiter anyway.