July 9, 2023: Crop of a picture of the Winding Stairs, before cleaning.
On July 16, Traer’s iconic Winding Stairs had a refreshment. It wasn’t a drink, but a full-on sandblast followed by a new coat of paint.
The North Tama Telegraph has the story, along with information about restoring the building the staircase is attached to. That building, of course, is the Traer Star-Clipper building, which housed the newspaper offices until 1954.
Some local yokel happened to have their picture taken on the stairs the Sunday preceding the cleaning for a writing venture. The introductory post was included in the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative “roundup” on Sunday. (Like! Subscribe! Tell your friends and enemies!) The photo didn’t appear, which is fine with me because the fewer pictures there are of me on the Internet, the better.