When visiting a historical area, one may see these steps at the street and wonder. They are too low to be a bench. Do they cover up something? Why are they between the road and the sidewalk? What is this thing just stuck out there on it’s own and they are usually directly between the road and the front door of the building.
These are carriage steps and date back to horse drawn carriages. The carriages sat high and these steps were designed so riders could exit carriages easily and gracefully. I have seen many of them in Charleston, SC down on the peninsula, but today was the first day I realized we had them in Sumter still. I was in the downtown area and within two blocks found several examples. I will now be on the look out for carriage steps in Sumter.
Copyright, Kim Peasley-Parker, October 2010
Originally published Sumter Home Pros
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