Footsteps from the Past

One of my favorite features of the Grand Manse is the marble stairway in the Northeast Lobby. This grand stairway wraps itself around the original cast iron enclosure for the elevator.  (The elevator itself has been updated since 1904 – just in case you’re wondering.)

I love the worn footfalls in these marble stairs.  Thousands of feet have carried people up these stairs during the past century. When I place my feet where others have walked, I think about a young man coming to file a land deed for a few acres of Nebraska prairie. I imagine a young couple almost dancing down the stairway after being married in the third floor courtroom.  I think about the Native Americans proudly walking up the stairway during the combined Wounded Knee trials in the 1970s.

I am walking through history and it reminds me that this building has a story to tell.  Walk these stairs and let them tell you their secrets.

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