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Q: 2 FRONT DOORS ON HOMES BUILT IN THE 1800'S ( Answered,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: 2 FRONT DOORS ON HOMES BUILT IN THE 1800'S
Category: Family and Home > Home
Asked by: bella51-ga
List Price: $3.00
Posted: 30 Aug 2006 05:28 PDT
Expires: 29 Sep 2006 05:28 PDT
Question ID: 760756
WHY DID HOMES IN THE 1800'S HAVE 2 FRONT DOORS?  ALSO, WHAT SYTLE
HOUSE WAS THIS CALLED.  I PURCHASED A HOME BUILT IN 1811 WITH 2 FRONT
DOORS.
Answer  
Subject: Re: 2 FRONT DOORS ON HOMES BUILT IN THE 1800'S
Answered By: bobbie7-ga on 30 Aug 2006 06:33 PDT
 
Hello Bella51,

Many houses from the 19th century had  two front doors.

According to SearchWarp , ?there's a very logical reason for this. One
door leads into the "keeping room", where the family keeps house. The
keeping room contains the large fireplace for cooking, and of course a
table and chairs for the family to relax. This is not the room you
want to introduce your guests into! So a second door would lead into
the living room, which was probably only used for special occasions."

SearchWarp 
http://searchwarp.com/swa14581.htm



Older homes with two front doors are quite common in KY and in other states. 

?One door normally let into the parlor or living room; the other door
could lead into the family's private area - the bedroom etc. There was
normally a wall between the two doors which could, if necessary, be
converted into 2 separate families living in the same house with their
own privacy.

Old churches always had 2 doors - the men entered in one door and sat on
one side of the church; the women on the other. School houses also were
built with way with one door for the boys and one for the girls; each
sitting on the appropriate sides.? 
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/SOUTH-CENTRAL-KENTUCKY/2005-01/1105901974


Houses with Two Front Doors in Louisiana
http://www.oldhousesoflouisiana.com/wm_800a_034.htm



The "two front door" house type mentioned is a Southern derivative of
the Pennsylvania German farmhouse. The Southern variant is also known
as a "Cumberland House."

Some citations:
Falk, Cynthia G. "Symbols of Assimilation or Status?: The Meanings of
Eighteenth- Century Houses in Coventry Township, Chester County,
Pennsylvania." Winterthur Portfolio 30 (1998): 107-34.

Glassie, Henry. "Eighteenth-Century Cultural Processes in Delaware Valley
Folk Building." In Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular
Architecture, edited by Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach, 394-425. Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 1986.

Long, Amos. The Pennsylvania German Family Farm. Publications of the
Pennsylvania German Society, vol. 6. Breinigsville, Pennsylvania: The
Pennsylvania German Society, 1972.

Riedl, Norbert F., Donald Ball, and Anthony Cavender. A Survey of
Traditional Architecture and Related Material Folk Culture Patterns in the
Normandy Reservoir, Coffee County, Tennessee. Department of Anthropology,
Report of Investigations, no. 17. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of
Tennessee, 1976.

Weaver, William Ways. "The Pennsylvania German House: European Antecedents
and New World Forms." Winterthur Portfolio 21 (1986): 243-64.
http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0203&L=histarch&T=0&F=&S=&P=28917

According to Glassie's "Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the
Eastern United States (1968), these are also known as double-pen
houses.
http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0203&L=histarch&T=0&F=&S=&P=30127


?A Cumberland-style home features two front doors and a symmetrical facade.?
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:6VJSfrUAmgAJ:www.knowledgeplex.org/news/169320.html+%22A+Cumberland-style+home+features+two+front+doors%22&hl=en&gl=cl&ct=clnk&cd=1
 


?The double pen house, which is an extremely common house type in both
the Ozark ... structure characterized by two front doors?
http://www.arkansaspreservation.org/pdf/publications/Ozark_Architecture.pdf


?Double Pen House- formed by a common wall joining the two pens with a
chimney at each gabled end. Most often used as quarters.?
Folk Homes of Louisiana
http://www.latech.edu/tech/liberal-arts/geography/courses/310/text/folk_housing.htm


Saddlebag house (1785-1930)
?The original type of saddlebag house was a two-room log cabin with
each room flanking a shared central chimney and each room having its
separate front door entrance.  Often used as dwelling of initial
occupation, but may have been built later in the nineteenth century
for use as slave quarters and/or tenant housing.  Indeed, the basic
form of two rooms, central chimney, and two front doors survived as a
popular housing type for both whites and blacks well into the
twentieth century, usually built as a frame house.  Glassie has called
this type the "Cumberland" house, but the house type can be found
throughout the region and not just in the Eastern Highland Rim and
Cumberland Plateau. ?
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:b-65ch2tI-UJ:www.mtsu.edu/~histpres/Cent_Farms95.doc+Cumberland+home+%22two+front+doors&hl=en&gl=cl&ct=clnk&cd=5

 

Search terms:
"two front doors"
Double Pen House
Cumberland-style home

I hope the information provided is helpful!

Best regards,  
Bobbie7
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