Green Stairs, Returning To The West Side

St Paul's West Side neighborhood lost it's historic Green Stairs in the summer of 2008 after a large piece of the cliff fell into the structure causing major damage. Due to lack of funding, the stairs were removed for safety reasons. They stood for 92 years and became part of the areas history.

One of the first projects in the state that was approved was replacement of the Green Stairs. From what I'm reading, the replacement should be open by the summer of 2010. The color of the stairs will remain green, thank goodness. The artist drawing of the stairs, which can be found here, sort of takes away the simplicity they once had. But the area has gone through a much needed face lift and I suppose the stairs had to be tweaked as well to fit in. I'm looking forward to new photos from the top of the stairs like this one I took in April of 2007.

   

More Metal

More metal of a different kind....

And Like That....It Was Gone

Follow up from a couple of days ago. I swung by the site of the Green Stairs on the West Side neighborhood. The removal has completed. All I found at the site are the cement stairs and green railing that lead the tower portion.

I also received an email from Carol, formerly of St Paul Daily Photo. She too documented the green stairs with photos. She was able to watch a good deal of the stair removal and took some photos during the process. See her photos here

Repost - Green Stairs At Night

With the news of yesterday's photo still in mind, I had to repost one of my favorite photos from the green stairs which is in day two of dismantling.

  

Dismantling The Historic Green Stairs

The 92 year old, 191 stairs and a historic piece of the lower West Side neighborhood in St Paul, has closed and is in the process of being dismantled. A steel beam was damaged earlier in May when a huge chuck of the limestone cliff damaged the structure and cracked a gusset plate. Sadly, this small icon of St Paul will be lost. Growing up very close to these stairs and playing on them quite often, it is sad to see this happening. My friends and I would have a stop watch, race to the bottom and back up to see who was the fastest. It was a grueling workout and I often saw people using the stairs for exercise.

So far, about a third of the structure is gone, plus the walkway from the bluffs to the main stairwell. If time permits, I will return tomorrow to photo graph the progress. There is talk of raising funds for a replacement stairwell by the two US senators of Minnesota, Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar.

The green stairs have been a favorite location to shoot photos from. The view is a classic downtown St Paul view.

Night time shot from the top of the green stairs
Day time shot from the top of the green stairs

   

I See A Little Silhouette Of A Man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, Will You Do The Fandango?

javascript:void(0) Publish Post That's me, right there on the walkway. I'm right there standing on the sidewalk. You can clearly see my shadow, can you not?

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Pre-Historic Cave Carvings

Well....maybe not historic, but someone recently cared enough to leave their mark on the sandstone cliffs that make up the banks that USED to be part of the Mississippi river millions of years ago. These modern hieroglyphics can be found at the base of the Green Stairs that I've recently posted about a few days ago. They are there, just as you step off the last step, look and you will find them.

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Before I Leave The Green Stairs

The view from the top of the green stairs is quite a place to be. There is so much to see from this vantage point. The tower you see is the heart of the lower Westside neightborhood into the projects. I know this tower has a name, but I cannot recall it at the moment. I googled for the name, but was unable to find what it is called. The tower has been repainted, restored and looks so nice from what I remember growing up and seeing what it looked like.

In the distance and what you cannot see is the Mississippi River, it's there, obviously below the viewable site. The bluffs in the distance is St Paul's East Side neighborhood.

You're In The Jungle Baby

As I was walking down the green stairs that I've recently posted about, I passed this bit of graffiti. I smiled and felt at home. I grew up in this Westside neighborhood, whomever wrote this just wanted to show their westside pride. There even used to be a West Side Pride Day parade. Salute!

What The Hell Is That?

Yikes, you'll hurt your neck if you look up for a long time at this photo. This is me looking up from the very bottom of the green stairs from my April 22nd photo with all of the naked tree branches reaching out to touch the green stair frame. One thing I noticed about the stairs, the closer one gets to the bottom, the rustier the stairs become as the rain drops really start to work on the metal and old paint trying to cover it. I can tell you this, when the bottom of the stairs finally starts to give way from being so rusty, the tree branches should be long enough to grab and hold the stairs upright.

It's A Long Way To The Top

Make that 189 stairs in all from the bottom to the top of the green stairs. When I was here taking this photo, there was someone walking up and down the stairs for exercise. I'm not sure how many times up and down she walked, but that is an interesting way to avoid purchasing expensive gym equipment to get the same type of work out. The stairs are located on the bluff in the Westside neighborhood, in St Paul.

Click the photo to get rid of the crappy shrunken graphics.