In the future, everyone using the front steps at the Disabled Americans Veterans headquarters will be reminded of the service rendered by local military personnel thanks to a project now nearing completion.

Upon reaching the top, they’ll have negotiated 13 large granite steps engraved in dark letters with the names of veterans who served in various wars and even made the supreme sacrifice.

“It’s bringing together the veterans,” said Dave Irby, chapter adjutant and service officer for the Disabled American Veterans in Mount Airy.

The newly installed steps arose as part of efforts to refurbish a 100-year-old house on West Lebanon Street.

And, along with helping visitors reach the front entrance of the stately structure owned by the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion, they will be providing a lasting tribute to veterans including Sgt. Anton Hiett. The Army Reservist from Mount Airy was only 25 years old in 2006 when he was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

While a major renovation of the two-story brick house progressed to the point that the DAV was able to move in and begin offering various services to veterans and widows last August, an unsightly metal stairway out front remained.

However, it now has been replaced by the granite steps, each weighing around 1,000 pounds along with being about 7 feet long, 18 inches high and some 8 inches high. People donated $250 apiece for the steps for the privilege of having them named either in memory or honor of veterans.

“We’ve got two more to go,” Irby said at the site Wednesday. In addition to the 13 stairs at the front entrance to the headquarters, there are two more in back for a total of 15. No one participating in the stairway project seemed to be bothered by superstition surrounding the number 13.

“Believe it or not, there’s several people that wanted it to be 13,” said Irby, who has no explanation as to why.

Along with Hiett, the steps honor the service of veterans who are still alive, including Norman Webb, who took part in the D-Day invasion during World War II. In some cases, veterans’ families paid for the steps, with Mount Airy radio stations WSYD and WPAQ designating one in honor of all former military personnel.

“We could have sold a whole lot more,” Irby said, mentioning that an expansion of the project is being considered which would involve selling stone markers for a walkway leading to the steps.

The $3,750 paid for the steps did not cover their actual cost, which was supplemented through contributions for the overall house renovation and proceeds from bingo games at Veterans Memorial Park.

Efforts to add the steps began last year. “It’s been an ongoing project,” Irby said.

The stone was obtained from North Carolina Granite Corp. in Mount Airy and then transported to an engraver. Similar to what has occurred with other facets of the renovations, stone masons donated their labor to lay the steps at the house, and Irby said other craftsmen will contribute time and materials to supply handrails for them.

Overall, about $30,000 will have been spent to renovate the home first occupied by dairyman C.W. Taylor and his family a century ago by the time the project is completed. “We’ve got the whole upstairs to do,” the DAV official said of the structure that has 11 rooms in all.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.