EOU staircase: From grand to ruins

The task force’s recommendation is a sad conclusion to an effort started a few years ago to gauge interest in returning the staircase to its past glory, of providing a renewed “link’’ between the university and the community. Complete restoration would cost an estimated $1.4 million, a study determined. Not a wise choice of funds at a time when EOU has more pressing needs, the task force reasoned.

We’re not sure why grant opportunities that are available for renovation of historical structures never materialized. Nor do we know how much effort was really put into seeking such grants. We do know that a capital campaign for the staircase raised about $60,000,  but that’s a far cry from the total needed for renovation.

The staircase, like the building it once served, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The university can’t remove it. And it is too unsafe to put back into service without complete renovation. So the task force chose the maintenance option, one that might slow the staircase’s decline but won’t result in it ever being used again. The $6.2 million awarded by the state in 2007 for Inlow’s renovation can provide some of the maintenance funding, but it isn’t sufficient for rebuilding the staircase, university officials have said.

Ninth Street and the staircase no longer provide the primary entrance to EOU, and they haven’t for some time. But for anyone who remembers those “grand’’ days, of Evensong and a beautiful, inviting entrance to the college on the hill, seeing those stairs fall into disrepair over the years hasn’t been an easy thing to do. But even more difficult is the realization that the historic staircase may never be “grand’’ again.