Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Exterior Doors

I just returned from Pittsburghs' Mexican War Historic District with some great exterior door photos. Homes were first built in this area in 1847. The architectural styles vary from Second Empire Mansards, Italianate, Richardson Romanesque, and Greek Revival. Neighboring streets also included some Victorian style homes. Thus the wide variety of exterior door styles.

Full round top door panels with applied moldings in 1 panel and 4 panel designs were popular during the Victorian era and adorned several homes adjacent to the historic district. Exterior doors with numerous small raised panels, with or without applied moldings were also abundant in many different configurations, some with glass and some without.

Many of the homes were a mixture of architectural styles. This frequently happened when the original owners preferences were not architecturally correct. After all most original owners were not architects and many probably did not hire architects to design their homes. They would put a Victorian entry on a home that may have mostly Italianate architecture simply because they liked the way it looked. They were not necessarily interested in adhering to strict architectural standards of a particular style or period.

I guess the moral to the story is, if you see an entry door you like and you like the way it looks on your house then it doesn't really matter if it is architecturally correct or not. This may offend some purists, but in the real world of architecture you can build a purebred or you can build a mutt

7 comments:

  1. My husband is in the process of remodeling our house and we have been looking for doors. We have been looking at fiber glass doors. My husband found a website that offers custom doors miami. I was wondering what your opinion is of fiberglass doors?

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  2. Because of various European influences styles and architectures today, characterizes the Baroque and Gothic style which were used in various residential and building monuments.

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  3. Yes, and exterior doors may be added with security devices such as pinhole or cameras outside.

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  4. Nice post! If you are planning to make improvements to your home that improve aesthetics, upgrade security and increase your property’s value, nothing beats woodgrain fiberglass doors. Thanks.

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  6. My wife wants me to get a new wood exterior door for our home. We realized having a nice exterior door for your home is nice to have, it will compliment your house. You don't want to have a old rusty and ugly door because its discomforting and its just not pleasant to look at.

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