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Two front doors - found some info
Figured I'd move this out of the Open House thread.
I found a page on old houses here but here are some excerpts (it's a lot so I bolded some key points):
"The twin door house first appeared mostly in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey areas with some random examples scattered in the other middle colonies. These homes were built mainly during the time that the Georgian style was most popular. The Georgian style is known for its visual balance, which requires strict symmetry, particularly in the placement of windows on the facade. This requires a center hall in the middle of the home, dividing the two primary first floor rooms.
Many of the early communities in the middle colonies were established by
settlers from different countries and unique religious beliefs. Some of
these groups' beliefs had a common trait ? an emphasis on simplicity.
With this view, combined with creating a shelter in a new land with
little time to waste, the center hall might seem more presumptuous than
practical. Without the division of a center hall, the front entry
placement would have to be off-center and enter only one of the primary,
ground level rooms. Creation of a second, identical entrance resolved
the issue of imbalance.
Some historians suggest the origin and use of double entry doors
is exclusively Pennsylvania German and was only for the period of 1800
to 1870. While it is found in many PA German farmhouses during that
period, my experience has shown the style was also used in other areas
by other ethnic groups. I've found several 18th century Dutch homes in
New Jersey as well as many 18th and 19th century English homes in Quaker
communities of PA and NJ that have this same modified Georgian detail. I
will concede that it is likely that the PA Germans are mostly
responsible for this style spreading to the West and South in the late
19th century."
We live only 3 or 4 miles from the old German section of Philadelphia, so this makes sense. My neighborhood was originally a rose farm, and two miles further away from the city from my house was a summer resort amusement park where the people from the city would come to play, see concerts, etc. It was around from the 1890s to the mid 1970s; my dad used to be able to see the top of the roller coaster laying in his bed as a kid and I remember when they were tearing it down and building the mall that stands there now. We're one block off both the main road that goes to both Germantown in one direction and the park in the other, and the rail system that goes to Philly. So it's highly likely that German and/or Quaker families built these old houses.
Re: Two front doors - found some info
So interesting!
I wish my house had some sort of character and history attached. Stupid 1990s ranch.
Blog
Buying an old but updated (as far as electrical and plumbing goes) house was on our wish list. Next time around we'll probably be more open-minded as far as newer construction goes, but we wanted to have a place that could tell us stories, and we could add stories to. We just found a bunch of old newspaper "insulation" when the cable guy came to do some wiring a few weeks ago. I plan to flip through it and see if there is anything neat we could preserve or maybe frame.
2012 Reading Challenge
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That's pretty neat. I was just talking to someone the other day about how I associate the smell of farm and cows with ice cream (in a good way if that's possible) because we used to go to the farm down the street to get treats in the summer. They used to deliver our milk, too.
Now most of the farms near my old house are housing developments or townhomes
2012 Reading Challenge