My mother didn’t like me to read too much, especially when there were more active things to do. With a shake of her head she’d say to me, “Carol, you’ve always got your nose in a book!”
I loved having my nose in a book – especially books about Nancy Drew. She solved mysteries, and I was fascinated by mysteries. Again and again I read the books in which Nancy Drew discovered secret rooms or passageways.
Cover of “The Hidden Staircase” by Carolyn Keene
My grandparents’ farmhouse reminded me of houses from these books. It had endless doors, strangely shaped closets, and stairways that we were not always allowed to use. The main staircase, just beyond the front door, was wide and light and had a beautiful banister and landings at the top and bottom.
But the back staircase – behind a door in the living room, was different. The closed door made it seem almost like a hidden passageway, and I was sure there must be a secret panel somewhere in its dark walls. We were discouraged from using this stairway because the painted wood steps were steep, narrow, and slippery. A knotted length of rough and scratchy rope served as the only handrail. My grandmother grew nervous when we wanted to go up “the back way,” and now that I have grandchildren of my own I can understand her fears.
To discourage their use, the door at the bottom of these stairs was kept shut, and when I got permission to climb them I had to go up two steps in order to reach the latch that opened the door toward me. This pushed me back down a step before I could get over the threshold and begin my ascent. The staircase led to three of the five upstairs bedrooms, the landing, and a bookshelf-lined hallway. On the shelves were storybooks, comic books, atlases, and nursing textbooks illustrated with drawings and photos of horrific and fascinating wounds and diseases. (My grandmother was a nurse before she was a farm wife.) My brother claims there were Playboy magazines hidden there too, but I never saw them.
I wanted to climb the back stairs for two reasons. The first was to find a hidden panel. (I never found it.) And the second was to sit on the floor in the silence of the dimly lit and almost hidden hallway and spend the afternoon with my nose in a book.
“Door to Back Bedroom and Door to Stairs,” Carol Crump Bryner, colored pencil, 2012
On Wednesday: Gardens
What a fascinating house! I, too, read Nancy Drew, along with the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift. I always wanted to find a hidden staircase but never did. Like you, however, I did find other hiding places to read. Times change. I don’t know many parents these days who are worried that their kids are reading too much.
Yes, you’re right. Times do change. Although my dad always loved to read, and my mom often said the same phrase about him, especially later in life when he would read at least three large books a week that he had checked out from the Wallingford Public Library. And that was another place where I loved to sit on the cool floor on a summer day next to the long bookcase and read books – downstairs in the Wallingford Library children’s section.
It’s so much fun to read your description of the “hidden staircase” in your grandparents’ house and how you tried to find a secret panel. What a perfect place for reading Nancy Drew and other books. I also spent hours reading Nancy Drew mysteries. She was my favorite sleuth, so cunning and brave, a good role model for young girls. I’m loving all your “On Whirlwind Hill” postings and artwork. What a wonderful way to use all the photographs and journals that have been kept through the years.
Hi Carol! Always so good to hear from you. Hope your summer is great. I’m so happy to be able to use the journals and letters, etc. in this way. I’m sure my ancestors would be pleased – I hope!
I remember finding my first Nancy Drew on that bookshelf and devouring it. I must have been in about 3rd grade because when I entered Miss Tyler’s 4th grade class and she had a whole shelf of Nancy Drew’s I thought I had hit the jackpot. I’d forgotten about the rope handrail and the fact that were two stairs to go up on the living room side of the door. Is your depiction of the doors accurate? I don’t remember a door to the left and, if so, where did it go to? Into Grandpa Biggs bedroom? Thank you again, Carol. Every memory you uncover is such a gift to me!
Hi Patti. It is pretty accurate, as I did my drawing looking at the only photo I could find of that door, which is one where I am in a playpen in front of it. The door next to the stairway door was the door to the bedroom off the bathroom. Kirt and I always think of it as Grandma Hall’s bedroom, although she may have moved out in the summers when Grandpa Biggs came to stay. It was a lovely little room. I may talk about it in a later post. I also have a feeling that my mom might have passed some of my Nancy Drew books along to you, although I still do have some of the originals.
The house we lived in on N. Farms Rd also had a back staircase with 2 stairs, door, landing and then up to 2nd floor. However, This was our main access to 2nd floor as the staircase in the front hall was very narrow with narrow treads, so one had to be careful where one planted one’s foot, or else you would slide down and there were two landings and change of direction, but it was beautiful with all the openings to the smoke closet, bonnet closet and coat closet on the 1st floor. Love the charm and history of these old structures and reading your stories.
These farmhouses must have been built around the same time. They did have such charm, and so many quirks. I don’t think most people these days are willing to put up with such things, but they gave the houses so much character.