Top Floor Layout
The top (fourth) floor of the Reddick Mansion was presumably used by the Reddick Family as the sleeping quarters for servants, and possibly guests and visiting dignitaries. It was, and still is, reached by an interior set of servant stairs at the rear-west side of the main hallway.
This floor was designed to have six primary rooms, three to the west of the main hallway (running north-south) and three to the east of the hallway. None of these rooms have been restored. In its original configuration, only the two rooms (west and east of the main hall) at the rear (north) had no closet space. Consequently, the use of these two rear rooms may have been for purposes other than sleeping.
The room on the northwest corner was found to have once contained a large lead-lined wooden water tank. Its use would have been as a cistern for the storage of run-off rainwater.
The room on the northeast side of the floor was found to have hooks on the wall which may have been used for the anchoring of lines for hanging wet clothes. This room, then, would have been a laundry room.
As reported in a study commissioned by the Ottawa Silica Company Foundation and The National Trust for Historic Preservation,
The center hall was an elaborate spatial affair illuminated by a skylight. The skylightopened into a central hall on the third [and top] floor hall and from there its light radiated from floor to floor through an open well surrounded by elegant walnut railings. (Page 22 of the study)
The schematic drawing of the original layout, seen just below, is a fair representation of what the top floor layout was like.
