THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES
The so-called ‘Dutch door’ often appears in Old Salem houses. Made in two sections, so that the upper half might be opened for light and ventilation, while the lower remained closed for protection against vagrant children or animals, it afforded special advantages of convenience, and was frequently accompanied by attractive architectural embellishments. An old example of this type of door is to be found in the Narbonne house at 71 Essex Street, Salem, built about the middle of the seventeenth century, this door being in four sections instead of two. Sometimes a blind, made to cover the upper opening as a protection against insects or to keep out the glare of the sun, and hinged at the top so that it might be fastened up out of the way, accompanied these Dutch doors.
The typical Salem door, however, was in one piece, set in a frame and ornamented with panels. These panels were usually six in number, two near the top, nearly square in shape, the others arranged in pairs at the center and lower part of the door, these four being of practically the same size, narrow rectangles set vertically. Doors with less than six panels are seldom though occasionally found. A few are in existence having as many as eight panels, a notable example being that in the front entrance of the Pierce-Johonnot-Nichols house at 80 Federal Street. Panels are of various types, sunken and beveled or moulded and raised, with or without beading.
In some doorways of unusual width, the door was made with double leaves—and now and then with three leaves, two only of which were ordinarily in use, the third being opened upon special occasions. An example of this latter is seen in the Pickman-Shreve-Little house at 27 Chestnut Street, built in 1816.
In color, Salem doors were usually painted white. Only rarely is one found which is stained instead of painted. With the increasing elaborateness of doorways and porches, in which so much pure white was necessarily used, doors were often for the sake of contrast painted dark green—an effective background for the brightly polished brass knocker and latch. Very rarely was the entrance-door of mahogany. A notable example is on the Andrew-Safford house, 13 Washington Square, built in 1818 by John Andrew, uncle of War Governor John A. Andrew. This beautiful six-panel door had been discarded, and lay forgotten for a hundred years amongst the lumber of the cellar, where it was discovered by accident. Rescued and restored, it now fittingly adorns the entrance of this fine old brick mansion—at the time when it was built probably the most expensive private residence in New England.
It has been said above that the typical Salem door is solid. Very early in the history of the Colony, with the advent of square-paned sash, the entire upper half of a door was sometimes replaced by one of these sashes. A door in the ‘House of the Seven Gables’ possesses this feature, as did the house of Lewis Hunt, which was built about 1698 and razed in 1863. To admit a little light into the tiny entries of the early houses, sometimes the two upper panels of the door were replaced by panes of glass. Top-lights—narrow windows running across just above the door—soon followed, and these again were improved upon by the introduction of the beautiful and elaborate fanlights, with their delicate leaden tracery, balanced by side-lights of similar design, which so artistically embellish the doorways of the best period of Salem architecture, and in the designing of which Samuel McIntire especially distinguished himself.
The earliest Salem door, as we have seen, was fastened by means of a bar, or, if it possessed perhaps a rude wooden latch, this was operated by means of the latch-string, which by day hung outside through a hole in the door, and was drawn in at night. ‘The latch-string is out’ has become a proverbial expression denoting the spirit of hospitality. The oaken bar was followed by the huge bolt of brass or iron, this again by clumsy locks with enormous keys. The latch-string was supplanted by the quaint thumb-latch, and very late in the Colonial period glass door-knobs and bell-pulls made their appearance. Outside the door, double blinds with shutters faced on the inner side with screen cloth were commonly used. Thus the tiny stuffy entries and hallways managed to receive something of the breath of life.
Too many old Salem doorways, beautiful otherwise, have been spoiled by the addition of modern ugly or inappropriate doors. It is to be hoped that a revival of the old-time Colonial taste may correct this fault.
CHAPTER V
OLD SALEM HOUSES AND THEIR DOORWAYS