SUBJECT: Is Your Stair Railing like This? (Need comparable examples for Clara Barton Missing Soldier's Office)
We need examples of house museums with similar historic stair guardrails (still in use) to support a code waiver for guard rail height. We are hoping to be able to report that 200 out of 200 house museums surveyed retained noncompliant stair railings in place without altering or supplementing them. We will, in any case, report accurately on any information you provide. Our museum space (in development) is Clara Barton's Missing Soldier's Office, located in an 1850s boarding house in downtown Washington. We sold the property for redevelopment but retain a preservation easement on Clara Barton's office and quarters.
The original, spartan entrance is completely intact and we don't want to spoil this important experience for visitors. At issue is the guard railing that keeps third floor occupants from falling down the stair. We have added secondary egress but want visitors to experience the entry as Clara did, much like the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, of similar age and construction, does. Our safety engineers are concerned about rambunctious or careless visitors falling over the 30" railing that surrounds the stair, though we've assured them all visitors will be escorted in manageable numbers, along the lines of what the Tenement Museum does. Our conservation plan is similar to thiers--retaining original materials in place, carefully filling in what's missing, using original finishes and artifacts as much as possible. The authenticity of the experience is key. The project architect's suggestion of adding a contemporary wood and metal 36" railing is unacceptable to us.
We would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to answer some simple questions that could be of great help to us:
Museum name/type
Approximate construction date of stair guard rail
Height of guard rail from floor
Can visitors access locations above the first floor using this stair or access the hall and stair guardrail, if not the stair itself?
Did retaining the railing as part of the visitor-accessible interpretation experience require a waiver or specific discussion with code enforcement authorities, or was preservation and continued use of the historic railing just assumed, given the building's museum function?
We'd be grateful if you could respond within a week so that we can move forward with project planning. Thanks for your help.
Kind regards,
Caroline Alderson and Sarah Garner
Sarah A. Garner and Caroline Alderson
Center for Historic Buildings
GSA Office of the Chief Architect
Public Buildings Service
1800 F Street NW, Suite 3341
Washington, DC 20405
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