Illus. 408.—Balusters and Newel of
Stairs at “Oak Hill,” Peabody.
The return of the stairs is panelled beneath, and at each corner of the turn of the balusters is a large post like the newel, which extends below the stairs and is finished in a twisted flame-like ornament.
The beautiful stairway with panelled ends and boxing in Illustration [407] is in the Allen house in Salem. The balusters are particularly good.
A section of the fine stairway at “Oak Hill,” Peabody, Massachusetts, in Illustration [408], gives the detail of the twisted balusters and newel so often seen in the old seaport towns. Each one of the balusters, of which there are three upon a stair, has a different twist, and the newel is a twist within a twist, the outer spiral being detached from the inner one. The balusters are painted white, and the rail and newel are of mahogany.
Illus. 409.—Stairs in Sargent-Murray-Gilman House,
Gloucester, 1768.
Illustration [409] shows the staircase in the Sargent-Murray-Gilman house in Gloucester, and Illustration [410] shows a mantel in the same house, which was built in 1768, by Winthrop Sargent, for his daughter when she married Rev. John Murray, who was the founder of the Universalist church in America. Later, the house was occupied by the father of Rev. Samuel Gilman, the author of “Fair Harvard.”
