... Mr. Manning. Your efforts are much appreciated.

This is Joe Manning. I contacted this family in 2008, visited three of the children, including both children in this photo, interviewed them, and wrote a detailed story about them. They were delightful people. You can see the story at this link:
https://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/warren-franklin-family-page...

Although it was invented over 20 years earlier, Sheetrock (drywall) did not gain great popularity until WWII. Initially it was considered a shoddy and cheap replacement to the labor intensive lath-and-plaster walls.

Checked on Ancestry.com. Twins born in 1935. Both grew up and married. As of this writing, one has passed away. The other was widowed and then remarried. Their father was at one time a farmer.

They look well used and do make great seating, but the extra time spent building these was kinda worth it. I think. Almost 80 years later and some random stranger notices the time spent putting a 45-degree cut on the risers and the stringers so they would have that nice edge. I can certainly appreciate that. He could have pre-drilled them to keep from splitting, but that would have certainly added more time for basement stairs and they probably looked great for awhile. With the new Sheetrock on the walls at the time, this house must have been decent enough. I'm thinking the building inspector would have been just fine with this. The wires were sealed and the stairs look to be within regulation of each other. You would need a little more fire blocking now, but overall, I still see houses on the market built around the same time frame and back to the turn of the century and they have much worse hazards to deal with. Mostly stuff redone by homeowners in the 50's and 60's and crappy kitchen installs from the 70's and 80's. I like this shot a lot. They look identical to me. Identically dirty and in need of a bath.

Happy, warm, and they look very well nourished. Obviously before the days of building inspectors.