The Case of the Mysterious Door. THE DRAMATIC CONCLUSION!
I have three announcements:
- I have called off Scotland Yard.
- I am brilliant.
- I am an idiot.
In a previous post I detailed the belated discovery that the door to the library was originally a service door. But where? WHERE was the damn door originally?
My first thought was that it was the lost door to the basement. But I measured and it was the wrong size. So, for days now I have been racking my brain trying to figure out where the door was originally. No matter though the amount of racking nothing made sense. There was no possible location for the door. But, the door was clearly from the Cross House as it matched all the first-floor doors which were, it seems, all custom-made.
But—drum roll, please—after much ado, I figured it out.
And this is where the Ross Is An Idiot part comes into play.
You see, I measured the door wrong.
For…it IS the lost basement door!
One of my favorite features of the house are these triple-doors in the kitchen. This architectural feature is gonna be glorious once restored. The left opening is to the basement stairs. The middle is to the second-floor stairs. The right is to the main pantry.
The left door was returned to the house last year. It proved to be the main pantry door (right) but as I do not need a door there I installed it in the left opening where it fit perfectly.
But now, after years of wondering what happened to the original basement door, it turns out that it has been hiding in plain sight all this time…in the library. It had been cut down on the bottom a bit, on the top a bit, and to one side a bit.
And this is where the Ross Is Brilliant part comes into play because I did, at last, finally figure this out.
Well, I apologize to y’all for taking you on a wild ride.
Even though the mystery is not fully resolved.
The library has a pair of pocket doors opening into it from the parlor, and there was, it seems, a single hinged door on the north wall of the library, entering the entry hall under the main stair. But was this door actually installed? If so, it had to be blocked-up because in 1950 a new stair to the basement was created under the 1894 staircase. Thus, if one stepped through the door from the library, one would have fallen down the new stairs. Or…was the door relocated during the 1929 conversion of the house into apartments?
Because I know that As Drawn and As Built can often be different things, I was uncertain if the north door had actually been installed in 1894. So, imagine my great delight in finding this image from 2000 when Bob Rodak owned the house. You can see the blocked-up 1894 door (left of middle) on the north wall, and the new door location (using the basement door!) to the right. WHY the basement door was cut down for this is unknown. (Note: I do not advocate gutting rooms to the studs.)
This is the library in 1999, looking north. In 1950, two bathrooms had been installed in the library along the north wall (one serving the former parlor, and the other serving the library, as shown here). Later, the Toms family installed a closet (left). You can just see the edge of the mantle, far left.
Bob quickly demolished the closet and parlor bathroom. After almost 50 years one could again stand in the library and look into the parlor through the pair of sliding doors. The library bathroom remained…for a bit. What is important here is the bathroom door. Is THAT the 1894 library door, now covered with a mirror?
I mean, the 1984 door was likely removed in either 1929 or 1950. So, why didn’t they simply reinstall it along the east library wall? Instead, they took the basement door, cut it down, and installed it. Huh? But, if the 1894 door was used for the new bathroom, they would have been a door short. With the basement now converted into motel rooms perhaps a door to the basement was no longer necessary?
These questions will likely never be answered.
But, I now know the answer to What Happened To The 1894 Basement Door?
Hence, my calling off Scotland Yard.
My instinct is to have Dr. Doug return the basement door to its original size and reinstall it in its original location. But…then what would I do with the door currently installed there, which was originally the door to the main pantry? I do not need or want a door on the pantry.
So, I will just have to suppress my instinct to put things back as they were. Which will be hard. But I have come up wth a salve for my wounded instinct! What I am gonna do is have little brass tags made which can be screwed to the original basement door, and the original pantry door, explaining where they were in the 1894 scheme of things. As such, nobody in, say, a century from now will have to do crazy blog posts about the doors to the Cross House.
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I am very curious to see this basement stair addition/alteration under the main stair, as I don’t think it’s ever been shown on the blog before. I am assuming you have no plans to eliminate it and return it to the original configuration, but I admit I might be tempted to contemplate it if I was in your shoes. Congrats on solving the mystery! I, like others, find these posts the most exciting.
Michael, I removed the 1950 basement stair in 2014. STAT!
It’s stored in the carriage house.
So the opportunity to restore the original library door opening remains? I believe you have shelving in its place now, but again if I was in your shoes contemplating this restoration would be on my mind. Is it off the table? I hope I’m not coming across as intrusive. I LOVE this blog and greatly respect your dedication and willingness to share your experience.
You are obviously a kindred spirit, Michael!
Until today I never gave a thought to returning the library door to its original location.
For, I was never certain the door WAS on the north wall until today.
But, for the last six hours I have been thinking: should I put the door back where it was in 1894?
As you you, I am a sucker for this kind of thing!
But…but…I don’t have the actual 1894 library door. If it magically turned up though I am pretty sure, new book shelves be damned, that I would reinstall it in its original location.
1894 library door becomes 1950 bathroom door, unneeded basement door becomes east library door with flow to library otherwise cut off, but where is the library/bathroom door playing out its third act? Perhaps Bob still has it and it can once again lead to the stair hall?
Jakob, I already called Bob about the bathroom door.
NOTE: I don’t know that the bathroom door WAS the 1894 library door.
I’m still a little confused… … where did the fancy backplates originate? Is that something that should be clear to me, or were they possibly from doors for which you found the replacement hardware?
Hi, Stewart!
During the 1929 and 1950 alterations of the house a numbers of doors were removed (or moved around). As such, the fancy hardware on the current library door likely came from an 1894 door which had been removed.
Hi Ross
I love these mysteries! When they created the two bathrooms, they would have then needed three doors, and so this is my theory. They used the basement door for the library, the pantry door for one of the bathrooms and the original library door for the other bathroom. When Bob dismantled the two bathrooms, he stored the original library door and the pantry door for awhile before taking them both to that property where you found the pantry door. Also, I wonder what happened to all the trim surrounding the door in that picture with the mirror. I bet Bob has the original library door at one of his properties. At the very least, he might remember what he did with the door after dismantling the second bathroom.
I’m always a fan of trying to put things back the way they were originally but that’s even more work for you. On the other hand, if you were able to actually find the original basement door…
Hi, Kerri!
1) It’s confirmed that the current door to the library is the original basement door.
2) I suspect that the door to the 1950 library bathroom was the original library door.
3) The door to the parlor bathroom was one of the sliding doors (in situ).
Yes, I wonder if Bob has the library bathroom door and trim. I called him.
Ross,
I am curious as to why your superior instincts doesn’t want or need the pantry door back where it belongs. Not only does this seem odd to me (you being you, and thank the old house gods for that!) but pantries are for food storage, thus should be kept cool. Having a door on the pantry therefore seems essential to me.
Julie, the original main pantry door would have always been…odd.
It opened INTO the pantry. Walking from the kitchen, the door knob was to the right, so the door would swung to the left. This would have been convenient for accessing the built-in ice chest. But the door could never have swung fully out-of-the-way due to a gas/electric sconce on the wall right next to the door!
So, to access the rest of the pantry, you would have had to open the door, step into the pantry, kinda squish yourself in the corner, and then close the door behind you.
Ridiculous! And it’s no wonder the door was removed. Likely early on based on the lack of paint on it.
The pantry was not heated because, yes, it was a food store room. But this was in a day of no refrigeration. Today, the pantry has an AC duct and I installed a sweet little radiator!
So, while I love the IDEA of reinstalling the main pantry door the REALITY would be awkward.
I wonder???
….. if you did find the original library door and decide that you want to repair and move the original pantry door back to the pantry.
….. if hinging it to swing the other way would be be less awkward,
…..or if it could be reinstalled as a pocket door. I know this one was not on the plans and would require extensive carpentry, but it would alleviate the blocking of the access issue.
*****
I would think you might wait until every other project on the house has been completed before taking this one on.
Well, that clears that up. Nothing quite like a super awkward door! My pantry door opened out, into the kitchen, between another door perpendicular, and the fridge. Super awkward, especially if you’ve got armloads of canning jars.
So I changed that, opening the door into the pantry, where it just clears the vacuum cleaner sitting in front of the water heater. My pantry isn’t big, and while it’s 12 feet long, it’s less than 6 feet wide. Always ineresting living in a small old house!
Side rabbit hole, Ross. Paint for the kitchen. I was privileged to live in the town my grandfather on my dad’s side had his home. It was a modest 4 bedroom home probably built about the same era as your lovely home. Certainly it had some of the same features as the Cross House, such as an imposing stair to the second floor and pocket doors into the parlor and the dining room. 6-year-old Dodi was fascinated by the breakfast alcove and that stair, resulting in a brisk paddling for sliding down the banister…among other things.
My point? I appreciate your love of the fine wood in the house, and wanting to get it back to optimum shape, I truly do. But the hard line is that the kitchen would have been painted white, even that gorgeous detail molding. We have to remember that all the beautiful detailing in the trim was Stock trim, just like the stuff in the hardware store. It wasn’t special back in the day, any more than basic 3 1/2 inch molding is today. These details could be ordered by the gross then, hard as they are to find today. We all know that today’s fashions are common as dirt, yet will be “vintage” in a few short years.
The Victorians/Edwardians were obsessed with cleanliness and those kitchens were achingly white. White showed dirt admirably, and God forbid that your kitchen was less than clean. Oh the horrors of a dish coming from a dirty kitchen! The stove was religiously blacked every week, and the ash was transported to the basement for rendering lye. My point is that, even in my childhood, kitchens were finished in white! It wasn’t until about the 50s that color began to creep into that last bastion of cleanliness, and it might be provident to look under the layer of crud at the door knob to see if this was the case. If nothing else, you might research to see if this is something that you might continue in your home. As we know, even today, appliances come predominately white, yes?
Hi, Dodi!
My research indicates, based on surviving evidence, that the kitchen was painted taupe, with all the wood painted a kinda nutmeg.
I am planning to have the plaster and wood professionally analyzed to confirm the original colors, and will repaint accordingly.
One of the things I like best about you is how these little mysteries niggle at your brain until you solve them. I’m adding it to my long, long list.
Sorry Ross, but now that I know where that door “belongs” it would drive me crazy…. I think the pantry wants her door.
What fun! My brain just exploded!
Whew! I’m glad we got that cleared up. Except I’m bothered by why anyone might have used a full-size, regular door (previously leading from the library to the stair hall) with fancier hardware as the bathroom door, and would have used a curiously downsized basement door with simpler hardware as the new main door to the room. Surely, if there were ever a need for a smaller door with more modest hardware, it would be for an entrance into a cramped bathroom.
Is there any evidence on the current library door that it was originally painted to match the kitchen? Is it clear that its current brown finish was done after 1894 (i.e., it doesn’t quite match the faux finish on other first floor doors in public spaces)?
I seriously long to become an old house detective – to figure out all these mysteries. Of course, I’d have to figure out my own 1890’s home first. And need to find the time and commitment to clean up my own messes 🙂 I’ve been refinishing a door for nearly five years now, ha. There are so many cool mysteries in our house, along with some amazing wallpapers.
I’m incredibly confused, but thanks for sharing!