Staircase

From 1901 until 1998, the Margaret J. Bennett House was a quaint and distinctly Victorian institution near the heart of Baltimore's Mount Vernon cultural district - a boarding house for single young women who needed a safe place to live while they attended college or worked downtown. After closing because of financial problems, the elegant apartment building at 14 E. Franklin St. reopened yesterday with a different focus: as federally funded housing for 29 recovering drug addicts and women with mental illnesses.

Long ago, Patti and Tag Cutchis knew they had the perfect floor plan in hand for their dream home. However, it took them eight years to find the right property on which to build.But once the couple -- he is a biomedical and electrical engineer, she sells computer software -- located their 3-acre site in Howard County's Highland Oaks development, the building process -- from breaking ground to moving in -- took about seven months. Their cedar house was constructed by McLean, Va., builder Patton and Rucks on land that originally was part of a 33-acre retreat for a Washington family.

SUBURBIA'S APPEAL to new immigrants is drawing federal law enforcement officers from the cities and farms to suburban communities in search of people who are in this country legally. Immigrants both legal and illegal are coming to the manicured suburbs because that's where the jobs are. They often take jobs that nobody else wants, even if it means long commutes to work.They come here for opportunities that don't exist at home. When Immigration and Naturalization Service officers arrested 23 illegal immigrants at two Annapolis apartment complexes in 1995, a legal immigrant from El Salvador lamented that it was disheartening to see his countrymen being sent back home "where there is no work, no money to buy food to eat or clothes," he told reporters at the time.

In 1877, in the city of Holy Faith - Santa Fe capital of the U.S. territory of New Mexico, the Sisters of Loretto unveiled a miracle.They had come here some 20 years before at the behest of the energetic young Bishop Jean Baptist Lamy to establish a school for girls; and they had done so. But when their school's chapel was near completion, a flaw in the design became evident: There was no space for a staircase to the choir loft.So the nuns prayed to St. Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, in a nine-day novena.

We recently purchased a 50-year-old home. Its interior architecture is traditional; the foyer includes crown moldings as well as a staircase with a wooden handrail and spindles. This seems to be a good place for a more modern design direction. Do you have some suggestions?Bold colors, unadorned surfaces and simple forms transform a traditional space into a more modern setting. And to illustrate these elements, I've chosen this photo of an entrance hall remodeled by Michael Graves.A designer as well as an architect, Mr. Graves has retained the American look of this foyer while avoiding standard decorative motifs.

A Baltimore police officer fatally shot a man who officers said assaulted his fiancee and was threatening them with two knives as he walked down a staircase Tuesday night inside a Southeast Baltimore apartment complex.Earl W. Nesbitt, 33, of the 6200 block of Plantview Way in O'Donnell Heights was shot four times in the chest about 11:30 p.m. He was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.The officer who fired his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, Drew Dorbert, 29, an eight-year veteran, was placed on administrative duties pending an investigation.

A 13-year-old Atlanta boy visiting his father was clinging to life yesterday after being shot in the neck, and investigators are searching for a youth who was seen running from a Southwest Baltimore rowhouse, city police said.The young victim was taken to Bon Secours Hospital and later transferred to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where police said he was in critical and unstable condition. Police did not identify him because they were having difficulty locating relatives.Agent Robert W. Weinhold Jr., a police spokesman, said the boy's father's girlfriend arrived at the house in the first block of S. Franklintown Road about 1:20 p.m. and saw a male juvenile running out the door.

High within the Lanhams' 4,500-square-foot dream home sits a loft that can be reached only by squeezing up a spiral stairway. It's that loft that offers them the most comfort."

Houston -- They bring back memories of a time when people weren't too frantic to sit on a swing for a few minutes and watch day fade into night.They are a piece of Americana, conjuring up images of mom and dad and the kids lazily sitting around talking or just watching the neighbors walking by.They're front porches, and they're coming back."

In "Up the Down Staircase," Sylvia Barrett, played by Megan Miller, begins her teaching career full of youthful optimism. But she is barely into her first year when she learns the job entails much more than teaching Chaucer. There is J. J. McHabe, played by Brad Snyder, who believes strict discipline is the only way to maintain order. And there is Joe Ferrone, an intelligent young rebel, played by Brian Forte. He poses a threat to Mr. McHabe's order and challenges Miss Barrett's abilities as a teacher.