The staircase of a home is a window into its soul.
That’s not a mixed metaphor; it’s just a confusing one. Allow these homes, on the market right now, to clarify.
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32 Staba Dr, Higganum
3 bd | 3.5 ba | 3,493 sq ft | 2.0 ac | $750,000
This quietly impressive home is just so in its main staircase, whose gentle curve, accentuated by the dark line of a banister built directly into the wall, feels entirely natural, despite knowing, of course, that it was carefully conceived and constructed. Inside and out, including with those stairs, the home’s earthy palette both belies and enriches an easy elegance, which extends to a number of recreational and hobby spaces in the home’s deeper recesses, from a wine cellar to a workshop.
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25 Surrey Dr, Cheshire
3 bd | 2.5 ba | 3,483 sq ft | 1.07 ac | $849,900
This custom 1990 home might feel sharp and cold, like one of the personal computers beginning to revolutionize domestic life at the time, were it not for the stairwell, a warm wood showpiece twirling widely out like a dancer’s skirt, with a sense of both precision and abandon. Cylindrical balusters made of lucite, I think, almost invisibly carry the sleek cascading line of the banister—a stroke of genius that aids the illusion of motion and makes the whole thing appear to float.
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565 Orange St, New Haven
5 bd | 3 ba | 2,205 sq ft | $910,000
This triplex in East Rock, the second of three red brick row houses, proves a fire escape can qualify as a main staircase, at least when, like a face tattoo, it’s prominently placed and inked in baby blue. Extending from a matching stoop and portico, the painted metal stairs give this middle child—doomed to be forever compared with its more normal-looking siblings—a quirky, make-do personality, one you can’t miss while passing by. It turns out the interior does, too, particularly on the top floor, where skylights embedded into slanted ceilings are so low that you might have to get down on the floor if you want to see the sky.
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14 Grouse Ln, Woodbridge
4 bd | 6 ba (4 full) | 4,164 sq ft | 1.53 ac | $1,150,000
This modernist Woodbridge home wears its heart on its sleeve, and—spoiler alert—its heart is the stairwell, a Scandinavia-toned switchback set spectacularly inside a two-story glass-block turret. Another, more subtly spectacular set of stairs lies just outside the glass: three long front steps angled in parallel like the edges of concentric stars, traveling into the home’s outer walls as if passing through or under them.
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77 Main St, East Haddam
4 bd | 5 ba (3 full) | 4,070 sq ft | 0.87 ac | $1,600,000
The main stairwell’s plumflesh runner, naval blue wallpapers, coppery stamped tin, gilded light fixtures and intricate newel post reminding of both a carousel and a lighthouse reflect this “1850 architectural treasure”’s broader embrace of bold Victorian style—as well as its breathtaking perch above the Connecticut River.
This is a home that ought never not be being enjoyed. Yet it’s been listed for sale, on and off, for over a year now, and whether it’ll take the seller coming down on the ask or a buyer coming up to meet it, I say somebody needs to step up, and not just onto that great set of stairs.
Written by Dan Mims. Top image features 77 Main St, East Haddam. Images sourced from their respective real estate listings.
