In Memory of the Historic John V. Bennes Grand Staircase 1929-2024
Welcome to a Celebration of Life for the Historic John V. Bennes Grand Staircase. We invite you to remember her and what she meant to you by reading through all that you’ll find on this site. We also encourage you to share your own staircase memories in the Comments section.
Although the Bennes Grand Staircase is gone, we believe that the space still holds the music and magic of Evensong and the memories, laughter, conversations, thoughts, and musings of all who climbed the steps over all the years. And, we believe that, no matter what, it always will.
This Place Mattered
In late January 2024, the Historic Grand Staircase on the Eastern Oregon University campus in La Grande, Oregon passed away at the age of 94 and a half. The cause of death was demolition.
The world welcomed the staircase in 1929, shortly after Eastern Oregon Normal School opened its doors. She was the brainchild of Oregon architect John V. Bennes. Her architecture was Italian Renaissance Revival. Her five tiers rose some 40 feet up the hillside. The low, broad tread of her 184 steps made them easy to climb.
When people would remind the Grand Staircase that The Oregonian once called her the “most majestic steps in Oregon,” she would blush, something made possible by the light-catching aggregate finish that gave her 418 balusters their rosy glow.
The Grand Staircase humbly thought of herself as simply the “college steps.” A renowned architectural historian reminded her she was a “remarkable asset,” comparable to the Spanish Steps in Rome.
Every spring from 1931 to 1971, she hosted the beloved commencement week tradition of Evensong and felt the pageant was her greatest achievement. She said it was her favorite time of year but then would add how she also loved how magical she looked in the snow.
She often recalled how proud she felt when she was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. She was listed with her sisters, Inlow Hall and the View Terrace. They were very close, intrinsically linked by Bennes’ vision of an Italian Renaissance villa on a hill.
Due to deferred maintenance, harsh eastern Oregon winters, and vandalism, the Grand Staircase noticed her condition began to deteriorate over time. In 2004, she was closed to public use. She said it was the saddest day of her life.
The Grand Staircase appreciated the numerous efforts that were made to save her. Among those who tried was Friends of the Grand Staircase, an informal organization representing the many people who loved the staircase and wanted to see her preserved. She was thrilled when Restore Oregon named her to their Most Endangered Places List in 2015.
Then in 2022, it happened. The Oregon Legislature awarded EOU funds to demolish and rebuild the Grand Staircase. She was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to have people once again walk from side to center and out again as they traversed her five tiers. She thought about all the new “first kisses” and marriage proposes that would take place on her steps and the photos that would be taken with her balustrades as the backdrop. She dreamed about new traditions.
As the heavy machinery approached to tear her down, the Grand Staircase did not know that she would not be rebuilt and would instead be replaced by a more utilitarian staircase as a cost-saving measure. This day was, in fact, the end of her life.
The Grand Staircase will be missed by the generations of people who knew her, who climbed her steps, who made sure to visit her anytime they were in La Grande, or who, as children, found her to be a wondrous playground.
Donations in her memory can be made to Restore Oregon to support their advocacy for the respect and preservation of Oregon’s historic properties. We invite you to give generously. This Place Mattered.
Friends of the Grand Staircase 
Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I did my student-teaching at Ackerman during 91-92. I was renting an apartment in a house in the neighborhood below the Grand Staircase, and I used the staircase to get to and from Ackerman every day. Of course, this required me to go THROUGH the admin building at the top of the stairs, but this an inconvenience I was glad to tolerate. I was the only student-teacher who lived in that direction, and it was a private walk, a time to collect my thoughts at the beginning and the end of a difficult day at school. When you’re a student-teacher, there are many difficult days. I think that climbing and descending the Grand Staircase served as a meditative task, serving much the same purpose as those floor mazes that some churches have installed.”
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“Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase” It was such a beautiful and treasured staircase.
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “Many great memories from my youth on and around that beautiful staircase”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I actually walked up it very soon before I was closed. I went to college at EOU starting in October 2004. I went up it and heard not much later it was closed.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “”I was one of the children that climbed the staircase to attend Ackerman grade school 6th and 7th grade. Probably 1949 and 1950. Being born and raised in La Grande I have wonderful memories of the staircase.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I went to Ackerman and we spent a lot of time on the staircase. We’d walk on the rails and some of my classmates rode their bikes on the rails! And lived! I remember seeing the historic photos of all the classes at the top of the stairs. It was so beautiful.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I went to school at EOU in the late 90s and walked that staircase many times.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “Climbed up and down those steps so many times while attending Ackerman K thru 6.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I stood on those steps as a member of Evensong court. Great memory.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “trapsed up and down her many times, the last times were lugging my bass guitar up her to rehearsal with the jazz band in Inlow early 80’s.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “Oh how many times we scaled those castle walls and fought the enemy and rescued the fair damsel! Great memories.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “Those stairs were a huge part of my childhood. My father conducted the choir for Evensong on those stairs for many years.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “We literally grew up on the college steps. Up and down and all around. With the kids who lived a stone’s throw from the bottom step, and all the other neighborhood children in the 60s and 70s. I recall the first time I ever got the wind knocked out of me when running down her, I slipped and hit the middle of my back on one of the step edges. I was about 10 years old. Thought I was dying. LOL one of the kids stood over me while I was gasping for air wondering what he should do. I finally got my breath back and all was good. In the winter we played to the right of her. Sledding and laughing and breathing hard down that steep hill that they would close to cars for the winter. To the left of her, in the summer, we would ride big pieces of cardboard down her hillside with a bump in the middle that you could almost get air on! What grand adventures we had on and around that beautiful grand staircase that is no more. Meet you at the college steps…”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “”I was a part of the 1970 Evensong court. The memory of standing on those stairs has suddenly become more important.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I remember when I move to La Grande in 77, what a beautiful staircase. I took my kids up it and learned it was part of the college. I have friends that had graduation picture on it too. I didn’t know at the time how important she was. Later in 2009 when I first attended the EOU I learned of its history and have pasted this information on to my grandsons and others wanting to know about her. The day I graduated EOU 2013 I took one last walk down and back up. She is a glorious beauty in my mind for ever more. She may not be the same as we first saw her but, she is still with us always.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I grew up on I and sixth and played on the staircase in summer!”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I remember walking up the guard rails clear to the top.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I remember going up and down those stairs nearly everyday with my gramma. Such wonderful memories.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I too grew up playing on those stairs, but because of deception it will never be as beautiful as before.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “Played on those stairs many times.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I walked those steps M-F and even some weekends for 2 years to attend college courses from the fall of 1973-1975.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “lived by it 17 years, walked it many times.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “I grew up on 9th literally two houses away and walked those steps so many times.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “She was BEAUTIFUL!! I will be crying forever!!!”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “Had my senior photos taken on those steps!”
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I first saw the staircase in the summer of 1953. I was playing in the front yard of the house we had just moved into at the opposite end of 9th from the staircase. I was perplexed when I saw the staircase and asked my mother what it was. She said, “Oh, those are the “college steps.”
A few weeks later, I began walking to Ackerman kindergarten via the staircase. I remember looking up at the middle retaining wall towering above me and being in total awe. I continued walking those steps all the years going to Ackerman and seem to have a kinesthetic memory of how it felt to walk each part, weaving from side to middle, up, and back out again.
Each part was a special playground. The right middle side landing was sunken a bit into the hillside making it easy to climb over the balustrade and hide under the spirea bush beside it. The balustrade at top of the middle retaining wall served as Juliet’s balcony with Romeo standing below. And then there were those last fun-to-climb steps curving around the top retaining wall and leading back to level ground. There was a sense of arrival and now it was on to those great Ackerman teachers and student teachers!
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “That was our playground we just lives down the street.”
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Memory shared with Friends of the Grand Staircase “We walked by those everyday going to school.”
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I had the tremendous good fortune of growing up in the house at the opposite end of 9Th Street from the Grand Staircase. Just three blocks away, it was always present in our lives.
When I attended J. H. Ackerman Elementary School on the college campus, I climbed the steps. Decades later I learned that John V. Bennes had designed the treads to be low and broad so they were easy for little children and everyone else to climb.
On the way home, friends and I tended to take our time, letting our imaginations run wild as we raced up and down the steps, peered between the balusters, or created forts under the spiraeas on the hillside. And Evensong? We loved Evensong.
I also climbed the steps while attending college. I remember one winter, after a heavy snowfall, walking up 9th to an evening class and seeing the “college steps” covered in snow, magical in the warm glow of the street lamps.
I am so sad that our beloved “college steps” are gone. And, I will be forever grateful that they are a part of my life’s story.
~ Marcia Hanford Loney
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