We have so little to say about these two spaces, we decided to combine them on a single page for economy's sake.
The East Breezeway was an open-air passage running north-south left by the 1885 Renovation between the Office of the Commission for Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture and the Supreme Court Library in the East Wing. The space was not closed to the elements until the 1980s.
The East Wing Stairwell is narrower that that of the West Wing. The stairs are steep and straight, except for a shallow turn at their foot. The most intriguing aspect of the space is that in 1885 there does not appear to have been any doorway in the north wall on the first floor. This would seem to indicate that the western part of the space on the first floor may have been separated from the rest of the hallway by a doorway and perhaps served as the clerk's office. This would explain why the East Breezeway was necessary, since it provided the only access to the rooms of the Supreme Court Library that constituted the majority of space in the first floor of the East Wing. By the Medical School era the western part of the stairwell serve as a women's restroom. The doorway was apparently cut in the north wall in 1949.
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