Using only primitive tools and no nails, it appears that the carpenter did not have a central support, nor was the staircase affixed to a wall. Ascending twenty feet, it makes two complete 360 degree revolutions to the choir loft. Devoting months to the impossible task of building a staircase, when the project was finished, the carpenter left without seeking remuneration.The Loretto Chapel staircase is a miraculous feat.

Joseph, a shabby, raggedy carpenter appeared. Shunned by cruel, pious girls, she found friendship with a stranger who was a carpenter, a 'crazy' lady who hides out in the hills and Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the Bishop of the Santa Fe Archdiocese.Spunky enough to tolerate the taunts from others, still, Lizzy is deeply grieving her mother and angry at the abandonment by her father.Using the backdrop of the unfolding coming-of-age story of Lizzie, Rinaldi expertly teaches the reader of the folklore and historical fact of the miraculous building of the spiral staircase in the chapel of Loretto.After the original chapel was built, it was realized that the space was too small to accommodate a choir loft.Legend shows that after nine days of prayers to St. When the remaining members of the party reached Santa Fe New Mexico, Lizzy was abandoned by her father and left at a Catholic boarding school with the sisters of Loretto.The only Methodist among Catholics, Lizzy found their incessant prayers and rituals very foreign. Once again Rinaldi wrote an excellent book filled with likable characters and historical fact.When Lizzy Elders traveled with her family in the long arduous trip west from Missouri in the hope of reaching Colorado for gold, sadly, Lizzy's mother died.

The staircase by ann rinaldi