To continue your tour, please return to the Main Hall and use the grand staircase to access the second floor.
You should now be standing in an open space at the top of the stairs. This area is called the Staircase Hall. From here, you can access the home’s private spaces: the Guest Wing, Owners’ Suite, and Servants’ Quarters.
You may have already noticed that the second floor has a different aesthetic than the first. It’s quite a bit brighter up here, thanks, in part, to lighter, neutral toned paint and wallpaper, which creates a very different atmosphere than the dark, wood paneling of the first floor.
The second floor also gets much more natural light thanks to seven laylights – a design element intended to allow sunlight to pass from the attic to the second floor. There are five skylights in the roof, which emit sunlight into the attic. The largest laylight – made of Tiffany Glass – is right above you. As you might imagine, this beautiful decorative glass would have been quite expensive to install, and this feature is uniquely designed to protect the Plants’ investment. Because this glass is resting in the floor of the attic, it is completely protected from the elements.
Now, make sure to look up high on the wall for a decorative grate. Behind this feature is the organ’s echo chamber. This space in the attic would have housed the more delicate and ethereal pipe ranks, such as the chimes and the strings. But when added to the sounds from the organ’s main chamber, would have created a beautiful and dynamic sound.
And if you turn around, you will find yourself facing a portrait of Thomas Plant. The original oil painting is by French portraitist Alphonse Jongers. Tom likely sat – or rather, stood – for that portrait around the time of Lucknow’s completion in 1914. Note what appears to be Lake Winnipesaukee and the Belknap Mountains in the background. Though the original oil painting is now at the Plant Memorial Home in Bath, Maine, our giclee print reproduction puts Tom back in his rightful place.
