Reclaiming Old Houses 
Editor's Note. — No many people are seeking the old house as the ideal countrv home that the subject bears much more than a cursory treatment. Mr. Hooper's wide 
experience in dealing with the problems of remodeling old homes makes him especially fitted to give the practical instruction necessary to make the undertaking the delightful 
success that it is in so few cases. For the first time the whole subject will be fully de eloped. The first article dealt with the choice of a house, and told what one should 
know before purchasing—what is good and bad and the test for determining a satis actory site and building. The second illustrated what is to be done in a practical ex¬ 
ample. This tells all about suitable hardware. The next issue will take up the discussion of fences and enclosures. 
I F one be so fortunate as to find all 
the hardware of his old house 
intact, he can congratulate himself. 
Old things much used wore out, and 
doors and windows were no excep¬ 
tion. When these were discarded 
for the more up-to-date style, the 
hardware was apt to pass also, giv¬ 
ing preference to the “modern" ar¬ 
ticle. Hence we frequently note in the 
old house, a graded scale, a historv of 
hardware, which sometimes starts 
with the latch string in the attic and 
the wooden hinges in the cellar, con¬ 
tinuing through the iron latches in the 
kitchen, the box surface lock in the best cham¬ 
ber to the late mortice lock with its metal 
knob, in the front parlor. Of these it may be 
only the last that is objectionable. A house 
may hold within itself much of improvement 
without being obnoxious so long as it does not 
extend too far into the present. Generally the 
best rooms were those improved; the old 
kitchen is apt to be nearer the original. 
Now, of course, if your later doors, are of 
good design there is no reason to discard them 
and consequently the hardware. First, does it 
fit? The older inside doors were generally 
about seven-eighths of an inch thick or less; 
the thinnest 
Excellent reproductions of the old 
Colonial designs may be pur¬ 
chased to-day 
by Charles E. Hooper 
P hotographs by the Author 
common form 
knocker 
door on which a mortice lock was 
used was one inch. Some of these 
early mortice locks were very- 
good, having commonly white 
porcelain or glass handles with 
comparatively simple brass in the 
more elaborate forms. The thin 
door was fitted with the latch and 
surface hinges, while the fixed 
joint “butt” or 
hinge pin sup- 
ported the 
thicker type. In the early paneled door the 
usual form of molding, at least in the East, was 
the quarter round, and this was a part of the 
door frame and not an independent piece as in 
later doors. The panels, too, were “raised” and 
their face Hush with the face of the frame. The 
back of the door, which was distinctly a back, 
was plain : flat panels and no moldings. A later 
form in which were used mortice lock and butts, 
had the raised panel without the moldings. Still 
later the door became double sided, had small 
inserted moldings and plain panels. These were 
commonly one inch and a quarter thick. With 
the early forms were used, first the latch and 
then the surface lock. This last was also used 
with thicker doors. The very earliest door was 
a “batten,” in which the strap hinge extended 
its full width, but houses to date with these are 
probably outside our consideration. Styles of 
Brass designs of this style are a 
somewhat later development 
course vary in dififerenr sections, and 
the periods and fittings overlap each 
other more or less; but the fore¬ 
going is intended to show certain 
general relations. 
Now, naturally, if one be minus 
as to early hardware, the question 
arises as to where it may be pro¬ 
cured. Often these things may be 
found in the junk-shop of a small 
city or in the catch-all box of far¬ 
mers, or they may be procured by 
agreement from an old house which 
is past usefulness, or again from a 
tenanted house perhaps by the ex¬ 
change of other hardware. Latches and sur¬ 
face hinges are frequently found in the cellar 
litter of houses destroyed by fire. And lastly, 
there are some forms among the modern re¬ 
productions, both in iron and brass. 
There are two heads which claim our atten¬ 
tion when choosing hardware for our refitting. 
These are art and practicability, and of them 
the latter is of prior importance. Practicabil¬ 
ity is the ground or frame on which artistic 
embellishment is based. A thing may be se¬ 
verely practical and still 
be artistic, or it be elab¬ 
orately artistic and yet 
- practical. Often the very 
limitation necessary to its practicability gives 
most excellent results. 
The most important member in connection 
with which hardware is to be considered is 
the door, already mentioned. Roughly the 
door is a wooden panel closing an opening in 
a wall. It is swung on hinges and fitted with 
a contrivance to hold it shut. It is fitted into a 
rabbet at the top and sides and swings clear of 
a 5 x io threshold at the 
bottom. Theoretically this 
is simple, but practically it 
is difficult. The besetting 
sins opposed to the perfect 
working of the door lie in sagging; first of 
the door itself, and second owing to loose 
hinges. Doors do not as a rule suggest from 
their design that they are hung on one side. 
There are some old outside doors which show 
braces in their construction and these are better 
and truer to the door principle than those of 
rectangular panels, as they suggest at once the 
fact that the door is hung and that the door has 
been designed to meet the difficulty of sagging. 
As a matter of fact, the ordinary door of soft 
wood, if well made, suffers little in this respect: 
with older doors, in particular, being thin and 
light as a rule, the principal difficulty lies in the 
pulling away of the upper hinge. Practically 
the door does not fit tightly into its rabbet, but is 
allowed some play in order that it may work 
This design is 
common in 
New England 
(30) 
