Looking up the South Hill Stairway
The South Main Street Stairs
Written by Mark Luebker
When Stillwater was founded in the mid-19th century, there was no easy way to reach what’s now known as the South Hill. “Nelson’s Field,” as it was called then (named for Socrates Nelson, an early settler and landowner), sat atop a bluff more than 100 feet high. But unlike the North Hill, there were no streets connecting it to the downtown below. And cutting through that bluff and filling in below to build such a connection would be a major engineering task.
This Gallery features a historical set of photos along with a "Time Tunnel" that allows you to go from 1870 to 2016. The gallery can be activated by Clicking or Tapping on any photo above. Photo credit for the historical photos is The John Runk Collection, courtesy of the Stillwater Public Library, the "Time Tunnel" photos are by R. Molenda.