Surprise: there's a hidden staircase

So my second week here a utility guy needed to access a closet on the first floor where a certain utility box was located.  He asked if he could remove the shelves in that closet, which I'd actually thought were built in.  He pulled them out and said, "Well, you have some stairs."

Wait.  What?  I have stairs?

Sure enough, there's a super creepy old staircase that leads up to the second floor but has been closed off on top by a new floor.  Now the staircase is being used as an access point for piping and utilities.

Creepy!!

The old stairs are lined with what is probably the original wallpaper, circa 1890.  It's so Victorian Gothic.

We've gone ahead and put those shelves back in.  Let's just pretend that whole scary thing isn't really there.