Out of the Frying Pan

Uncle Hayes at the Campbell Mansion, Part 3

“The outside of the main house was nice, but the inside was beautiful. On the first floor was the kitchen, cook and butler’s quarters, a bathroom, living room and a huge dining room. A fireplace was in the middle of the living room and dining room. The house itself was well-built, but strangely made, well, at least it wasn’t the way I would have made it.

There were three entrances, the front door, side door, and back door, but only one set of stairs to go up to the second floor. That’s not unheard of, but the stairway was badly located right in the middle of the house.

“Just inside the front door, there was a small foyer about ten feet wide and eight feet deep and that is where the stairs started. They went up, turned right with a small landing, then turned right again before continuing up to reach the second floor. I could imagine what a time a person would have trying to get furniture up and down those stairs, especially since in those days most furniture was quite large in size. The staircase wasn’t centered either, it was to the right against a wall that was part of the living room. The area below the upper half of the staircase had been walled in and a door had been installed to create a closet of sorts. That too made the entrance area smaller.

“I figured I might start in the attic to see if there were any signs of roof leaks. I went up the oddly-designed stairs and took a quick tour of the second floor. At the top of the stairs and immediately to the left was the entrance to the master bedroom. Built over the driveway, it was a long room with a fireplace, a huge bathroom, and a large area for the bed itself with windows all around. Toward the back of the suite was a smaller room, I guess where they kept their kids when they were still babies. Further down the hall was a linen closet and beyond that were two more big bedrooms, both with their own baths. Any of these rooms would have been big enough to make into nice-sized apartments.

“I turned right again and found another staircase that led up to the attic. At the top of the stairs was a door which was unlocked, so I stepped in. Man, it was hot up there. To my surprise, the attic area had been used as the upstairs maid’s living quarters. With a private bathroom, living area, and a wall divider for the bed, the space was the same size of the entire house. Shucks, this area alone was bigger than most houses.

“The windows all opened inwardly and one on the back wall had been replaced by an exhaust fan. I went around and opened all the windows, then turned the fan on. In no time at all, it cooled down from the cross breeze as the outside air was being sucked in through three different directions.

“I checked the roof area and there were no signs of leaks anywhere. All I found was that one of the windows had a crack, probably from the heat and being closed up so long. I wrote that down. Fix window glass, attic.

“I went back down the steps and into the first bedroom on my right. Again it was large and had a fireplace. I found everything in good shape, nothing a new coat of paint wouldn’t take care of. One wall would take more paint to cover because it was pink. I was thinking, Must have been the daughter’s room when I heard noises above me like something moving around.

“My first thought was the haint from the night before. But it’s broad daylight, they don’t usually come out in the daytime, or that’s what most folks say. I heard another noise and thought, Shucks, I know what it is. I left the windows open and the fan on. I bet a bird or squirrel might have come through that old rotten screen and can’t find its way out. So I went back up the stairs to the attic and looked around.

"I didn’t find anything, not even a broken screen."

...To be continued...