1. Perfect for getting the laundry downstairs!
2. Sweeping side sounds good
3. If I had that in my house, I’D slide down it!!
4. laundry, suitcases
5. Just an architectural feature I’ve live lots of place that had them I think the main reason is spanking so you can hold the railing going up and down
6. Your post and mine looks super similar!! My house is from 1899! How about yours?
7. I’d use it for the clothes hamper
8. Storage or a early version of a dumbwaiter.
9. I worked in an older building that had. One. The board flipped up against the wall when not in use. I saw it used as a way to move objects down to the lower level. Like a ramp. Instead of having to walk the stairs. Nifty idea
10. Oh, my! Hadn’t thought about it for ages, but I remember that stairway construction in older homes from when I was a kid. Old, old, old!
11. It wasn’t a way to remove deceased loved ones instead of carrying someone down a stair??
12. I’ve never seen anything like that, thanks for sharing
13. Having lived in a two story home, it’s definitely for sliding things downstairs to save trips up and down those stairs.
14. Our house has one because the stairs was not built custom when my grandparents moved the house and remodeled, but reused from another house so they weren’t quite right size so they put the ‘spacer’ slide in it against wall to make them fit the space right!
    We used it for cars and stuffed animals and now our daughter uses it for that too
15. I have no suggestions on what it was intended for but I would use it as a laundry chute. And probably a guinea pig slide.
16. For cleaning but i am sure alot more was thrown down them!
    Beautiful homes tho would love to do the woodwork!
17. To slide dishes down  that’s what I would have used it for lol
18. For a Chair lift my grandpa use to have one many many years ago they build it next to the stairs
19. Maybe the stairs and second story was added later on addition to a single story house. And they didn’t want to open up the wall to tie in the stai
20. Food tray slide for dining area on different floor than kitchen. Easier for servants than carrying up stairs.
21. If you don’t want to carry it while climbing stairs you could slide it up. Missing a piece.
22. Could it be as result of having a staircase just wide enough for each hand to have support if needed ~
    I often slide my vacuum tube and other items down my stairs!
23. The cat would be entertained all day there, sliding. lol. By the way, check that Pilar cap and see if it opens. If it does, I’ll bet there’s something inside that was forgotten.
24. I would guess that the staircase has been altered at some point, or a wall added. I would venture to say that either the upstairs hand if in parallel with the wall upstairs or the wall goes completely to the ceiling on the upper floor
25. I was in a Victorian recently that had an orchestra balcony, there was a slide next to the stairs for bringing the instruments up and down
26. I don’t know what its intended use was, but I know what I would have used it for as a kid, or drunk anytime.
27. All I see is leftovers from from the renovations on the stairs. The grey line on the left ending in a box on the far left looks like an electric cord ending in a socket box. They are often used to save the effort of making a hole in the wall. It might be a closet but I don’t really think so.
28. I was in a Victorian recently that had an orchestra balcony, there was a slide next to the stairs for bringing the instruments up and down
29. I clean a big old house with a huge carved wooden staircase and the gap between the carved wood banisters and the adjacent stair case all have slopes so they can be cleaned between but this looks odd but maybe the wall wasn’t there before
30. To me this seems like a space where one could easily (and safely) transport linens and other items down the stairs to do the washing. Just the first guess that came to my mind.
31. from the track next to the wall, it may have been for an old chair lift, looks like the stairs were cut and the hand rail moved over
32. It was the bottom slide for electric lift chair for handicap and elderly to get up and down just sit in it push button and it took you up or down the stairs
33. nstead of attaching the handrail to the wall they choose to put up a banister. Which requires a space between the wall and the stairs. I think it was just the design style of whoever built it.
34. I would put a mini elevator in a house if I built one. Maybe have it hidden like a hidden staircase. I would put in a secret room too or a pumped out panic room.
35. It is a tray service rack. A food tray like bed table would wedge into one slot and one leg of the tray wo hi ld wedge into a lower slot, and the tray could be moved upto the top or bottom level.
36. To me it looks like there may have been one of those chairs that went up the stairs. Like an elevator for an elderly person. Maybe at one time it was open up top?
37. Im totally guessing but Ide say it would be for cleaning (sweeping, laundry, ect ) to make it
38. The stair opening was there to accommodate the stair railings. So not just against the
    wall. The finish trim then added. So really no purpose for the area, just pretty trim. My grandfather and father were woodworkers and the done many different kinds of grand stair cases.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENT!