VISITORS PROTECTED NOW
New Rails on Stairs in the Navy Department Building
The heavy mahogany banisters of the stairways at the State, War, and Navy Departments are being fitted with nickeled railings. There are thirty-eight flights of stairs in the building, and the work will not be finished before Monday.
The banisters are low, especially at the top. In 1888 a man named Keating, a clerk in the department, fell over the banister on the fourth floor and was killed instantly. When Secretary Taft took office he suggested to the superintendent of the building, G. W. Baird, that railings be attached. Congress was asked for $1,000 to do the work, and granted it.
Source: Visitors Protected Now, The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 2 November 1905, p. 6.