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Post by scathma on Sept 18, 2018 15:12:22 GMT -5
The basement stairs are in a service hall between the servant's sitting room and the garage. This hall is to the right of the kitchen if one is facing the house.
I am looking at a photocopy of a floor plan from the NJSP archives - I don't think it will scan well.
If one were coming in from the garage, you would turn left into the service hall. Straight ahead would be the entrance to the kitchen, but immediately before entering the kitchen, if one took another left, you would be at the top of the stairs to the basement.
So while not IN the kitchen, the door to the basement staircase is just outside the kitchen...
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Post by scathma on Sept 18, 2018 18:30:38 GMT -5
When I visited the house last year, neither the basement or attic were part of our private tour. The garage has been converted to usable space and there is an enclosed porch built on what was the patio off the back of the house.
There are two staircases between the first and second floors. The front stairs definitely don't lead to the basement. What I don't recall is if that rear staircase goes up to the second floor and down to the basement. On the tour, we went up the back staircase and down the front, since the nursery was closest to those stairs and we saw that room last.
My biggest takeaway from the staircases is how obscured the view of the front staircase is from the den. Something like 2/3 of the room cannot see the staircase at all; you have to be on the end of the room that border's CAL's study to have any chance of a view of the front stairs. There's a double doorway to the den from the hall so if one of the doors was closed you'd have even less of a view.
From the floor plan, the back staircase looks even worse; you'd only have a glimpse from the kitchen or servant's sitting room doorways of anyone using that staircase and leaving the house out the side door or through the garage.
I don't believe there is any egress from the basement directly to the outside.
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Post by scathma on Sept 19, 2018 10:25:56 GMT -5
Attachment DeletedHere's the first floor plan from the NJSP archives. I don't know exactly what folder it came from. From its appearance, it looks like it was drawn by an investigator. The back stairs appear below the label "Service Hall"
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Post by lightningjew on Sept 20, 2018 12:43:41 GMT -5
Hey. In response the first question here, those ruts in the photo are the access road, which connects to the drive at both ends (in the pic and about 100 ft. from the entrance). It was on that access road that the retreating footprints were found, leading to driveway/main road. Featherbed Lane, though now it’s broken in two, is about a half-mile away. The access road was often confused and conflated with Featherbed in reports, since “Featherbed” was a catch-all term for any rough country road.
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Post by lightningjew on Sept 20, 2018 14:36:41 GMT -5
If you go to get thread titled ‘The Ladder’, on pg. 9 you’ll find a couple aerial views of the area that I posted. Featherbed Ln.’s in purple.
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