THE DOOR ITSELF
The Salem Colonial door, while an integral part of the entrance,
possesses nevertheless such distinctive characteristics as to deserve a
chapter of its own.
The log cabins of Naumkeag, as has been seen, had primitive doors
of vertical slabs hung on iron strap hinges and backed perhaps by a
curtain of skins to keep out the draft. These doors were ‘battened’
within by transverse pieces at top and bottom, the whole fastened
solidly together by spikes clinched on the inside, or perhaps by means
of wooden pins. A heavy oaken bar falling into sockets on either
doorpost further barricaded the entrance at need.
With improvement in the type of Salem houses, the batten door still for
a time persisted, though in a more finished form, and with some attempt
at ornamentation. A notable example of this later batten door is found
in the Rebecca Nurse house at Danvers, formerly a part of Salem. This
house was built in 1636, the door being embellished with regular rows
of nails so arranged as to form a diamond pattern, the outline of
which is scratched upon the planks. Another example is found in one of
the entrances to the famous ‘House of the Seven Gables’ in Salem, known
through Hawthorne’s novel by that name.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES
Batten Door]
[Illustration: 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.