# Turn-of-the-century architecture question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 23, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848 "2016-11-23T22:58:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/1 "2016-11-23T22:58:05Z")
We’re shopping for a new house, and both Very Cool Spouse and I love Victorian houses, so we’ve been looking at several. One thing I’ve noticed is that in several we’ve looked at there is a stairway from the kitchen on the 1st floor to a room on the 2nd floor. I get that the servants might be required to bring a cup of tea to the lady of the house while she’s reading before bed, without using the regular-folks stairway in the front, but why does the stairway come out in a room? What happens in that room? Why doesn’t the back/servant’s stairway come out in the hall like the front-of-the-house stairway?
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### Author:  [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/2 "2016-11-23T23:16:07Z")
That’s the servant’s quarters.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/3 "2016-11-24T02:47:16Z")
No, if the back staircase starts in the ground-floor kitchen and leads directly into a room on the floor above, I’m guessing that room was probably the dining room.
If you didn’t have a passage or an anteroom separating the back stairs from the dining room, you would probably have had a folding screen/room divider concealing the stair entrance from the guests.
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### Author:  [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2016, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/4 "2016-11-24T08:58:10Z")
Dover (?) books have a lot of compilations of Victorian architecture and sometimes they include the original floor plans with the rooms are labelled.
The Queen Anne/Italianate house that I know, the kitchen staircase lead to one end of the upper hallway and the main staircase (that no one used!) led to the other. The upstairs bathroom had a large anteroom that you went through to get to the bathroom. Victorians, go figure.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2016, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/5 "2016-11-24T10:40:56Z")
As well as the Dover books, you can try googling ‘Victorian house plans’ or similar.
One that came up with lots of original plans, with their room designations was
[https://www.pinterest.com/explore/victorian-house-plans/](https://www.pinterest.com/explore/victorian-house-plans/)
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### Author:  [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/6 "2016-11-24T19:00:22Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#):
>
> As well as the Dover books, you can try googling ‘Victorian house plans’ or similar.
>
> One that came up with lots of original plans, with their room designations was
>
> [https://www.pinterest.com/explore/victorian-house-plans/](https://www.pinterest.com/explore/victorian-house-plans/)
Kewl!
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### Author:  [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/7 "2016-11-25T20:24:23Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#):
>
> That’s the servant’s quarters.
Not that the houses we’re looking at a huge, but the upstairs room (where the stairway comes out) is quite small, like 10 ft square. I suppose one person might have a bed there, or a couple if they have a very small double bed.
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/8 "2016-11-26T15:31:26Z")
I lived in an older house for a short while. The regular staircase was just inside the front door and it led to a large landing on the second floor. There had been another staircase that ran from the kitchen at the back of the house to the front second floor bedroom. The door to that staircase was only about 5 feet tall in the kitchen. The first 8 or so stairs had been removed and the area was made into a pantry. The door in the bedroom was standard height and the stairs were still present. A hanger rod had been added to that area and it was used as a closet. That stairwell was also much narrower than the primary, it was only about 2 feet wide.
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### Author:  [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/9 "2016-11-28T01:03:45Z")
Without seeing the plan, I would say it was the daily breakfast/lunch eating dining area (as opposed to a more formal setting or dinner). It was common to have these the second floor.
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### Author:  [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/10 "2016-11-30T19:02:15Z")
> [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](#):
>
> Without seeing the plan, I would say it was the daily breakfast/lunch eating dining area (as opposed to a more formal setting or dinner). It was common to have these the second floor.
Oooh! That sounds convincing! Each of the ones I have seen are a) at the back of the house and b) small but nice with at least 2 windows on different walls–perfect for a nice breakfast served by miladies maid without us having to go downstairs.
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### Author:  [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-of-the-century-architecture-question/772848/11 "2016-12-03T19:44:08Z")
In the house I grew up in (built in the 1920s, but I think it still applies), the back stairs off the kitchen led up to a small landing and two doors, side by side. Originally, each door opened into a servant’s bedroom, probably not even 10’ x 10’. The owner before us had knocked out the wall between the two servant’s rooms to make one usable bedroom.