Friday, June 5, 2015

DOUBLE DOORS...



I looked at that Sepia Saturday shot for a long time; I stored it on my desktop and sat down at my desk every now and then just to have a look at it.
          I noticed things: Pin striped suits, chessboards, chess pieces, tablecloths, chairs with scrolled backs, library tables, horrible flowery wallpaper, music stands – even men with receding hairlines – but nothing came to me.
          Nothing…
…until today, when I looked at the photo one more time.

And there they were, right before my eyes: double doors!

Double doors – or French doors – are two adjacent doors that share the same larger frame. Here in New England, old public buildings such as churches, meeting houses and businesses often had double doors; the doors had matching hardware, and both knobs were on the inside edges.
          Sometimes, there was a knob only on one side – the other door released from the inside; I’ve seen one set of doors with a knob on one side and a lock on the other.



These white double doors are from the old Union Church in Harpswell Center, built in 1841 by local ship carpenters. It fell into disrepair in the mid-20th century; the Harpswell Garden Club restored the building in 1952 and continues to maintain it by charging reasonable fees for weddings and other events – it’s best to be married in the warmer months, for the old place has absolutely no heating (I can tell you this from experience). It does have the old maghogany pulpit and pine pews and floors; it has a working organ, too.
          But it’s “wicked cold,” as we say in Maine.
It was listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1989.





The green, single-paned set is from the Merriconeag Grange Hall, just down the road from the Union Church in Harpswell.
The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry is a fraternal organization formed in the mid-1800s, right after the American Civil War.
It’s got secret rituals, like most fraternal groups; in the early years it was devoted to educational events (latest practices in farming, cooperative seed purchase, etc.) and, perhaps more importantly, social events for farming families – suppers and programs and dances that eased the isolation and tedium of farm life in the 19th century.
          Merriconeag Grange still meets, twice monthly – one of the few Granges still thriving in the area.


Some say that the doors of a building frame the measure of its hospitality; if that’s true – and I tend to believe it is – then these old double doors, with their balance and symmetry, welcome you inside with warmth and a sense of grace.

27 comments:

  1. I really like French doors. Sliding glass doors are more practical when it comes to pairing them with screens. But French doors have so much more character. I especially like glass-paned French doors used inside to close off a room such as a home office or den. Interrupting sound is eliminated, but you're not closed off from everything else.

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    1. I, too, like French doors inside...close off a space while allowing all the light in the world come through...

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  2. When I walked the Camino de Santiago in 2013 I saw, and photographed, scores of doors in the villages and towns that I passed. I found it incredible the variety and detail that I encountered.

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    1. Brett -- look for a book "The Language of Doors," by Paulo Vicente and Tom Connor...you'll LOVE it!

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  3. I looked at that photo for ages too but still didn’t spot the double doors. I must pay more attention to photos – I keep telling myself that but I still just skim the surface.

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    1. Me, too, Barbara! This time I stuck to it...my first thought was to do "doorknobs," but I'd posted about door hardware before. It's the tiny things, isn't it?

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  4. What a perfect example of how to make the theme image work for you. When Sepia Saturday first started we used to have word prompts, but the image prompt is so much better because it allows such fascinating interpretations as yours.

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    1. It's one of the things I love about Sepia Saturday, Alan...the various ways people interpret the prompt; the things they notice. Amazing...

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  5. Our last home in Sydney had double front doors but we only ever used one normally, and then when we needed to open both to get some large item of furniture in, we couldn't renember where the key was hidden:-)

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    1. Did it have a latch at the top that you released by pulling a chain? My grandparents had one of those...

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    2. No, it wasn't that old really, but I think in the end we had to take the door off its hinges temporarily in order to make the opening wide enough!

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    3. And I've done that, too -- do you remember transoms over the double doors?

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  6. I once lived in a main floor apartment in a house with french doors between the living room and dining room (which was actually my bedroom). For the first year, I would always open both doors with a large smile on my face. Still miss those doors.

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    1. I have a single 15-pane door to my bedroom, too, and the sunlight comes in every morning. I bet you miss those doors - do you have anyplace you can install some now?

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  7. I hadn't heard that last saying about doors. How interesting.

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    1. Interesting to me, too, Alex. I think it's akin to the belief that eyes are windows to the soul; that windows reflect the soul of a house and the doors reflect the hospitality. The more I think about those, the more I agree!

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  8. Good eye on the "double door" thing, I had overlooked this.

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    1. Funny how we miss the things right in front of us, isn't it? (That sounds terribly profound, but I don't mean it that way!)

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  9. I didn't see the doors either..nice take on the prompt. There is a certain grand feeling to double doors.

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  10. Oh, Helen...a perfect word -- "grand." You're right -- there IS something grand about double doors...

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  11. No wonder I like double doors -- a measure of hospitality. What an inspiring thought.

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    1. I'm a door and window freak, Wendy! Especially after learning the word "fenestration." How can you pass that up?

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  12. Good for you finding the double door theme!

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    1. Sometimes I can find something different, but most of the time I can't -- no matter...I always enjoy seeing what others find!

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  13. Ahhh, so clever! Double doors are always so interesting. Why have two when one will work? Because two indicates that even more folks are to be welcomed inside.

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    1. Oh, what a nice thought that is!!! Thank you for putting it that way -- can't think of a better reason to have doubles!

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    2. Oh, what a nice thought that is!!! Thank you for putting it that way -- can't think of a better reason to have doubles!

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