The staircases of the Valley seemingly appear out of nowhere.
Drive through Valley downtowns and you might miss them. But get out and walk, and you’ll discover stairs in the least expected places.
Poking out at the bottom of a wooded hill.
Cut into the side of stone walls.
At the end of alleyways between buildings.
Valley Staircase History
Valley historian Robert Novak says the staircases were built 100 to 150 years ago by cities trying to make traveling easier for their residents.
People living on the hill tops of towns like Ansonia needed to get downtown to work in factories and shop in stores. People living in the low lying areas often walked up the hills to get to churches and Ansonia High School. Cars weren’t around, so staircases were the best people movers.
The largest, and formerly most traveled, staircase was the Cliffway in Ansonia, Novak said.
The Cliffway connects South Cliff Street with East Main Street.
It used to extend over a canal — modern day East Main Street — directly to an alley next to the modern day senior center. That alleyway took walkers to the front of the Ansonia Opera House on Main Street.
While the opera house stopped hosting traditional operas in the late 1800s, according to Novak, it remained a community center for Ansonia for many years.
“It didn’t make economic sense to drive a horse downtown,” Novak said. “Nowadays, the steepness or distance isn’t such a factor now that everybody has an automobile.”
Novak said 100 years ago, the staircases were used by thousands of people a day.
Other busy staircases during that time included the now defunct stairway from upper Caroline Street down to modern day Water Street in Derby, Novak said.
Readers on the Valley Indy Facebook page also noted the Platt Street staircase, the staircase over the railroad tracks in Seymour and the staircase on Coram Avenue in Shelton.
Novak also remembered taking the stairs down Hill Street to Long Hill Avenue in Shelton, but this reporter couldn’t find that set of steps.
Three People
I took my camera to the Cliffway on a Saturday late morning, expecting to see people using the staircase.
I waited half an hour.
No one came.
As I climbed back into my car, parked on South Cliff Street, I noticed a couple walk toward the staircase.
I grabbed my camera and ran toward them.
Huffing and puffing in the July heat, I asked if they minded me taking video of them walking down the staircase.
The nice young couple obliged.
While I taped, one other person walked up the staircase.
In a half hour, three people used the staircase.
Novak was right. With cars at the handy, people didn’t appear to use the staircase to get from the hilltop to downtown.
But, my unofficial experiment shows that it might still be more efficient to walk.
The Race
As the couple walked down the stairs, and I climbed back into my car, I decided I would stop at Big Y while I was out.
South Cliff is a one-way road starting where I was parked, so I navigated through back roads and found my way down the hill to Big Y below.
I got my cart and walked inside — only to find the nice couple from the staircase, well into their shopping trip.
The direct route of the stairs — at least this time — beat the roads in my car.
I’m not the only one who appreciates staircases like the ones in the Valley. Click here to view the website for Public Stairs, an online tribute to long staircases across the world.
