Tuesday, April 09, 2013

My HOMESTEAD'S Front Doors April A to Z

My House-Commonly know as the Homestead
Our house, built in the mid to late 19th century (we have plans to check it out), has 2 front doors. Many of you know, we inherited this house from Mr BC's mom, and since she has owned it, we have noticed a lot of houses here in the mid-west that share this architectural oddity. 

The left door (unused) goes into the living room (parlor) and the other (the front door) goes into the dining room. The dining room also accesses the stairway, a bedroom/bath and the kitchen, there is an archway inside, between the two main rooms. There is a third door on the left side of the porch as well, with 2 large windows in the living room, I only have one solid wall. Furniture arrangement is fun, and I sit in a chair positioned in front of the unused door.  This is problematic for folks who don't know which door is the door we use.

In checking this out online there are many supposed reasons for two front doors:

• One is the "in" door and the other is "out"
• Families were huge and two exits were needed in case of a fire or urgent

  outhouse visit
• Extra ventilation – people didn't bathe and cooking over an open fire stinks
• When the second generation came of age, the home was always shared
• The second door was for servants, not likely in our neighborhood. • The home was built in two separate sections

• One of the doors was only used for funerals, this was the one my MIL
   believed.
• One of the doors was only used for the groom to carry the bride over the
threshold.
According to Old House Web:

Some stories told and written about the use of the two doors have some credibility. These involve using one door for daily, domestic use while reserving the other for formal functions and receiving guests. One door usually opens into the "keeping room," where cooking and other domestic functions occurred, and the other opens to a more formal parlor..... first appearing mostly in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey areas. 
Old House Web
Since my house has no foyer, this seems to make sense. Without the separation of a center hall, the front door, would have to be off-center and enter only one of the main, ground level rooms. Creation of a second, identical entrance would resolved the issue of imbalance.  This is a fairly unromantic reason for the door placement, in comparison, the other reasons mentioned.  However, in all likely hood, aesthetics and balance is probably the real reason for my odd 2 front doors.
Old House Web
 

16 comments :

  1. I love the character of old houses. We have a family cabin that has old hotel windows in it that were recovered when the hotel burned down.

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  2. Interesting. Does your house have a back door. In our old properties it was normal to enter by the front door and exit at the rear.

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    1. It now has a back door into the garage, but when Mr. BC's mom moved in, it had a back door off the kitchen onto a tumbled down porch of some kind. I never saw it. I would really like to find out how old it is.

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  3. Interesting! My house has three doors, the front, the side, and the back, but none are side by side. It causes enough confusion when I say "the front door" because my family doesn't actually agree as to which that is. The door that leads into the living room? Or the door that leads into the dining room? And my son, to be persnickety, insists the door that opens onto the laundry room is the front one!

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  4. Just stopping by from the A-Z Challenge list to say "Hi" :)

    Good luck with the rest of the challenge!

    xx

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  5. These houses are gorgeous. I've never heard of the two door concepts so I'm glad I stopped by your blog!

    ~ Bouquet of Books

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  6. What a fun post! I've seen houses with two doors before and always wondered what possible reason there could be for it.

    Lovely home by the way :)
    Jen

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  7. Very interesting. I will now keep my eyes open for homes with two front doors!

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  8. Hmmm...there are many older home around here, and several of them do indeed have side by side front doors. I wonder if that is something that happened back in Germany, or if the settlers just decided to start doing it once they got here?

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    1. That is a good question, Mr BC is of German descent but I haven't a clue.

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  9. How interesting! I've never see a house with two doors before.

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  10. My grandma's home used to have similar features. I loved that house. It had a coal cellar and the hatch door where the truck would pour coal. I adore old homes. Unfortunately, those days and that house are gone. xo

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  11. Very interesting! I don't think I have ever seen a house with two front doors either! Great post!

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  12. PS just seen your comment on my latest post and have to tell you the 'half sucked foxes glacier mint' is a joke m'deario. Fox's Glacier Mints are what you call candy.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox%27s_Glacier_Mints

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  13. Very interesting. I don't think I've ever seen any homes with two front doors here in France.

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  14. Old houses fascinate me, but I've never lived in one.
    Visiting from A-Z. Good to meet you.

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