The Country House 



r 



of plain glass which shall enable one to see clearly. If the house is large 

 enough, and the service demands it, two separate doors should be provided, 

 one to be used for entrance and the other for exit. 



The "weather doors," used in winter to reinforce the outside door in 



keeping out storm and cold, are com- 

 monly batten doors of plain matched 

 stuff, with a makeshift sash, perhaps, 

 screwed against a hole in the upper 

 half. That this is ugly and unneces- 

 sary goes without saying, and more 

 especially if it forms the entrance to 

 the "dog house" usually tacked about 

 the front door. Here is a chance to 

 use as close models some of the strongly 

 simple examples of either the Middle 

 Ages or the New England Colonial. 

 Where there is no vestibule, the 

 weather door and the outside door 

 coming together are awkward to handle, 

 resulting often in jammed fingers and 

 other little pleasantries. A better plan 

 is to have a vestibule and two well- 

 separated doors. The inner outside 

 door can be made more delicate in 

 design than the outer, or weather door, 

 which may be of the Dutch pattern. 

 With this arrangement the inner door 

 becomes practically an inside door, 

 hence the reduction in scale of details 

 is possible. In pleasant weather the 

 outer door could remain open (or half of it if a Dutch door), and in the winter 

 and stormy weather it could be closed. Another fault, where the two doors are 

 together, is that the outer must of necessity swing out, and, while having some 

 advantages in repelling the weather, is very apt to stick, and, when suddenly 

 opened, upset some portly caller over backward and down the steps. One can- 

 not expect one's friends to appreciate such treatment. The real objection to the 

 swinging in of the outside door is that its construction allows for the accumu- 

 lation of rain and snow in the doorway, which, becoming frozen, is a bother and 

 hindrance in opening the door. An extended porch or piazza might prevent this 

 to a certain extent, but in its absence there are those who may be willing 

 to risk the bones of others and prefer that the door swing outward. This 

 may be easily prevented by having enough glass in the upper panel to 

 enable one to see who or what may be outside; side lights may answer 

 the purpose, but they are less direct. A still better idea is to have a 

 wrought-iron or bronze grating on the outside, and the glazing behind it in 

 the form of a swinging or sliding sash. The pedlar who is wont to shove 



Interior doorway at "Gunston Hall," Virginia. A food 

 example of the straight, interrupted pediment. A bust is sup- 

 posed to occupy the space at the top 



