The Future of the Belknap Lookout Park’s ‘Death Stairs’

Stairs are everywhere. They may be in your home, at work, or your gym (I'm counting the stair-stepper, I have "climbed" those stairs for hours). I was recently in Boston, Massachusetts with some friends, and we unintentionally signed ourselves up to climb nearly 300 very steep stairs inside the Bunker Hill Monument. The view was great but getting up and down...not so much.

I thought those stairs would be the death of me. But what if stairs are the death of you because the stairs themselves are perilous? 

Poor design or aging construction can make climbing stairs dangerous, and one Facebook group titled "Death Stairs' allows members to submit photos of stairs from around the world ranging from weird to dangerous, and the old steps at Belknap Lookout Park have gone viral inside the group.

Belknap Lookout Park Stairs

The stairs at Belknap Lookout Park, if you can even call them stairs at this point, once allowed pedestrians to walk some 150 steps up from Division St to the park and vice versa. Sadly, the stairs have crumbled into major disrepair, to the point that the stairs entrance has been blocked to dissuade people from using them.

I tried walking these stairs and it was unnerving and should be avoided.

Park Upgrades

The park itself has seen some slight upgrades in recent years, but the stairs have been ignored...until now. A plan is in place with the City of Grand Rapids to completely overhaul the hill and add a new ramp system for bikes and scooters, as well as a new set of stairs, that will allow people to get up and down with better accessibility.

The plans are ambitious and will not be ready for many years, but will reshape the hill from a place to sit and watch the sunset to a destination point downtown. For now, though, the stairs will continue to fade into the hill to be forgotten.