I have always wondered...

A place to hang out, chat and post general discussion topics. (Non-technical posts here)
User avatar
awomanwithahammer
Knows where blueprints are hidden
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:19 am
Location: Maryville, TN

I have always wondered...

Post by awomanwithahammer »

...why some older houses have two front doors? I'm not sure exactly when it was built (probably 20s or 30s) but my sister's house has two doors at right angles to each other--one opens into the living room and the other opens into a bedroom. Or would it have been a parlor, since it has a fireplace? It's the only fireplace in the house, as the living room doesn't even have one. There is only one "true" bedroom in that case, so it seems odd to have had a living room AND a parlor. I've seen a number of houses with two doors literally right next to each other.

I figure this is the place to ask; if no one here knows, nobody will!
Bonnie

Sashguy

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Sashguy »

I don't know about Maryville, but in Houston, we had two phases where very many homes had additional front doors installed. One phase dates to around 1920 and the second to 1945. Displacements during the two world wars left the city with housing shortages and people took in boarders.

phil
Has many leather bound books
Posts: 4616
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:11 pm
Location: Near Vancouver BC

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by phil »

I don't think mine had any door into the basement other than the outside door. maybe that was when they decided to build stairs and went on cobble together a couple of bedrooms in the basement. - or maybe they just had a bunch of kids. A lot of that happened after the war too.

I had a chuckle recently at Family guy.. Louis's filthy rich parents were visiting and the wife said, gee I've never seen a house where you can walk straight into the living room ;-)

User avatar
Lily left the valley
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2170
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:07 pm
Location: Gardner, MA, USA
Contact:

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Lily left the valley »

At some point a former owner could have also had a small business they ran out of the home, and added the extra door just for the business clientele.

The realtor we used here in Gardner had at one time added a door for such to what is the actual "office" room of their home, then later had a sun porch built on in the back when her son pretty much took over the family business. From then on, they only met with clients in that room, bringing whatever paperwork was needed from the office to in there instead. You actually walk by the old office door which still had a sign in the window on the way to the sun room.

One home we rented when we were in NC actually had two back doors instead of front. The mom, I think it was, of the sisters that owned the home then had her one woman hair salon within the home before she passed. So clients would go down a side path to the back, enter through that door, which led them to a small room where she had a sink (opposite wall to the bath) and chair with mirror. We used the room as a library, as all the evidence of what it used to be was gone by then. The other door that was off the back driveway led into the laundry, which led into the kitchen (on the other side of the bath, so you could see how the plumbing layout was efficient). The home was a long ranch style, so the doors were at either end.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

User avatar
Jamie
Settling in
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:36 pm

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Jamie »

My circa 1870's stick style house in Western New York State had two front doors. One went to the center room of the house which I was told was called the "common parlor". The other door went to the front room that faced the street. I was told was called the "Formal parlor". When the house was built thre were doors in the double wide arch which allowed this front room to be closed off from the rest of the house. In Victorian times this "Formal Parlor" is the room company would be greeted when they came to call. In my old house it had the faciest woodwork.

User avatar
Willa
Revered expert in almost everything
Posts: 1369
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:46 pm

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Willa »

I don't have two front doors but I do have two foyer doors. My set up sounds similar to Jamie's.

One leads directly into the dining room area, which has a stained glass door. The other (plain door)leads into the smaller front room. However, this front room doesn't have doors or pocket doors to separate this area so the two door foyer is a mystery. It is a common feature in this area though, that I saw on several houses of this age. I should also mention that my house is modest - perhaps 950 square feet total.

Due to the cold winter foyer doors are good. I'm not sure about the utility of having two separate doorways for rooms that are adjacent. You would have to hide in the corner of the front room to be unseen from the dining room = ???

User avatar
Mick_VT
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 2437
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:39 am
Location: Central Vermont
Contact:

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Mick_VT »

Willa wrote:I don't have two front doors but I do have two foyer doors. My set up sounds similar to Jamie's.

One leads directly into the dining room area, which has a stained glass door. The other (plain door)leads into the smaller front room. However, this front room doesn't have doors or pocket doors to separate this area so the two door foyer is a mystery. It is a common feature in this area though, that I saw on several houses of this age. I should also mention that my house is modest - perhaps 950 square feet total.

Due to the cold winter foyer doors are good. I'm not sure about the utility of having two separate doorways for rooms that are adjacent. You would have to hide in the corner of the front room to be unseen from the dining room = ???


Perhaps there may have been a portiere in between the two rooms originally
Mick...

User avatar
Willa
Revered expert in almost everything
Posts: 1369
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:46 pm

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Willa »

Mick_VT wrote:
Perhaps there may have been a portiere in between the two rooms originally


I had to look that fancy word up ! I wondered - was it some kind of decorative plant stand ? A folding screen ?

There's no sign of old marks where curtain type hardware was - unless thumbtacks were copiously used for this purpose.

There's many, many variations of this style of house, local to this city only. There was a smaller one just down the street for sale. The listing photos showed pocket doors in the larger opening. It seems these houses were built with mix and match features. There were different but similar versions of stained glass, entry doors, porch detail, decorative gables. The layout is identical, with variations of 1, 1 1/2 stories or 2 stories, often red brick on the main floor but sometimes yellow brick. It's like a scaled down version of a fancier, larger house. I am guessing the dual entry foyer was a feature of this (ie "putting on airs").

I remember reading about why some pre-1900 houses had two front doors, but I cannot remember what the writer said.

I do remember speculation that maybe there were superstitions about one door being only used for carrying out the dead(ie it was common to have wakes in the home). Or superstitions about one door being used for entering the house, and the other for exiting. Often these doors were side by side on the front of the house, so it made no sense for one to be a service or tradesman entrance.

In western Canada there were a few very old taverns that had (surviving, circa 1930's)separate entrances for men, and the other for "Ladies and Escorts". I just don't think these houses had men's and women's doors. Or that the two doors were made in case the owner ever wanted to convert it to a duplex. Or that one door opened onto the main floor and the other opened to the stairs (why would an outside door be needed to the bedroom area? ).

User avatar
awomanwithahammer
Knows where blueprints are hidden
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:19 am
Location: Maryville, TN

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by awomanwithahammer »

Lily, the home office idea brought something to mind I'd almost forgotten--the 1969 rancher we live in had two front doors when we bought it! They were also at right angles and the secondary one opened into a bedroom. We posited that someone had had an office at home. The only thing that challenges that idea is that we're pretty sure that the house was built as a spec house. Anyway, I'd forgotten it because I took out that door and drywalled over it since the house had 7 exterior doors at the time!

Willa, that's interesting about taking the dead out of one of the doors. I can't imagine that that superstition would have carried over to 1969, though.

I don't know, I thought maybe it had something to do with air flow and ventilation here in the South (like a dog trot), but it sounds like this happens in many places.

Thanks for the speculation, guys!
Bonnie

User avatar
Manalto
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2108
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: I have always wondered...

Post by Manalto »

Willa wrote:I do remember speculation that maybe there were superstitions about one door being only used for carrying out the dead(ie it was common to have wakes in the home).

I was told that the "funeral door" you still see on many center-chimney colonial houses here in New England was to accommodate transportation of a casket, which is too long to go out the front door. Standing a casket on end to get it through a door was, apparently, sufficiently unseemly to merit construction of an additional door.



James

Post Reply