recovering the remnants of a post-chicago fire walnut wood staircase with an exceptional octagonal newel post

it appears after repeated (failed) attempts to reach out and connect with the contractor, i'm embarrassingly relegated back to the dumpster behind the commercial building constructed in 1876 (see earlier posts on this building).

it's abundantly clear that money and/or avoiding crossing paths with the construction workers onsite will persuade my original contact to allow me the time needed to deconstruct the solid walnut wood staircases, found throughout this post-chicago fire commercial building.

i'm very much immune to being held as the lowest priority when it comes to a historic building undergoing renovation or demolition. from a developer or wrecker's standpoint, salvagers often represent more of an imposition, despite the fact that the parties stand to be monetarily compensated and given more space in their dumpsters that otherwise would be filled with the materials we intend on saving from the landfill.

so today, i brought a few members of my salvage team to monitor the worksite and determine if the contractor has kept to his word and set aside or saved the staircases for us to remove.

i was disappointed to learn that the lower floor newels and spindles were gone - tossed in the dumpster. i was a bit puzzled, but not terribly surprised. i spoke to a few of the workers that kindly invited me back into the building to show me what has been or will be removed in the next few days. the amount of wood (including the staircases) being tossed into dumpsters makes absolutely no sense. they were completely indifferent to the matter, but i don't in any way blame them - they are simply doing their job.

so i decided to revisit the dumpsters and remove any and all staircase components that had been discarded earlier that day. in a matter of minutes, i was pulling out the turned spindles, hand railing, a solid walnut wood octagonal-shaped newel and a few other pieces for the sole purpose of documenting materials and methodologies.

i hopefully when i return tomorrow, i will be able to finally solidify the elusive deal by offering to remove the remaining staircases the moment money is exchanged. there must be at least ten more turned newels like the one recovered, in addition to the massive amount of spindles - all painted, but comprised of solid walnut.

indeed this is by no means your typical "salvage" operation, but sometimes you need to do whatever needs to be done to achieve what you are seeking, which in this case, consists of several 1870's walnut wood newels and spindles.

the photo gallery below offers a number of images of the one staircase recovered - partially intact of course. i've put together a few "systems" of combined materials, along with close-ups of joinery and the like.

despite the staircase not being removed under ideal circumstances, i at least managed to cobble up enough of the materials to illustrate the style and craftsmanship of a typical 1870's commercial building staircase.