Doors and Doorways 



pendent of the other if desired. Thus the lower half could remain closed, 

 while the upper was opened for light and air. Provision was made for bolting 

 the two halves together so that the whole thing became an ordinary door. With 

 this very handy form the children were kept in, and stray pigs and chickens out, 

 while the door, to all intent and purpose, remained open. 



Another Dutch notion was that of the seats flanking either side of the 

 entrance. These were used with and without the porch motive. It w r as prob- 

 ably from this source that Rip Van Winkle first learned to "tarry"; hence, old 

 Tarrytown should have been well supplied with this commodity. 



The Colonial doorway took on many forms, which are best exemplified in 

 the illustrations. An early form was that using the corner block, in which the 

 architrave received into its corner intersections a square ornamental block. In 

 wooden examples where the baseboard projected, and often when flush with the 

 architrave, this last member was set on a plain base of sufficient projection to 

 receive the baseboard. Another modern treatment was to enclose the whole with 

 a back band and omit the base. 

 From the nature of this construc- 

 tion, the architraves were made 

 symmetrical. Later came the 

 pilaster, surmounted by either the 

 straight cap or the curved or seg- 

 mental pediment or the straight or 

 curved "broken" pediment. Some- 

 times the pilaster was abandoned 

 as part of the design and the ped- 

 iment, varying in form, was sup- 

 ported by brackets. Another form 

 of door treatment was the Vene- 

 tian door. This consisted of three 

 divisions separated by two mullions, 

 che larger opening of which formed 

 the windows or side lights. An arch 

 over the door constituted, with this | 

 triple arrangement, what is termed 

 the "Palladian motive," and not 

 infrequently the arch, made ellip- 

 tical in form, spanned the three 

 openings. This considerable area 

 of glazing offered a chance for 

 beautiful leaded glass. The door 

 itself was usually simple in char- 

 acter, no carving being introduced 

 except in the panel mouldings. 



-, ' . 5 I ne old Longfellow doorway at Cambridge, Mass. 



sometimes the montant was of 



extra width, beaded in the centre to suggest double doors. This was used only 



when the doorway was of extra width. Such treatment, however, is hardly to be 



