For those of you with a mid century home, we’ve previously spotlighted two companies that sell mid century modern style exterior doors — Crestview’s wood doors and the new Therma-Tru fiberglass doors. But what if you have a Colonial style home — or as Pam likes to call it — Cool-onial? Reader Doug had this dilemma, and tipped us to Simpson Door, which offers five exterior door styles that might be more suitable a more traditional looking mid century ranch, Colonial or Cape Cod home. Simpson Door also has several options for historic Bungalows and Arts & Crafts style homes.
Wood doors made in the U.S.A.
We reached out to Simpson Door to learn more about this company, and very promptly received a helpful response from their marketing rep, Brandner Communications’ Troy Brown. Troy sent us all the great door style photos and this info about the 101-year-old company:
Simpson® Door Company’s “Made-in-the USA” Story:
Like the Douglas fir and Western hemlock trees that grow in abundance here, Simpson® Door Company’s roots run deep in the heart of Washington State forestland. For 100 years, Simpson has been creating American-made exterior, interior and custom wood doors at its manufacturing facility in McCleary, Washington.
Simpson’s story began in 1910 when savvy businessman and tireless innovator Henry McCleary had 40 acres of land cleared for his new door factory. The 900-foot-long facility was completed in 1912. As the largest door factory in the world at the time, McCleary Door Company began producing 138,000 units a month. In 1941, Simpson Lumber Company acquired the door plant and renamed it Simpson Door Company.
The creativity, engineering and innovation that began with Henry McCleary continue. Today, Simpson remains an industry-leading manufacturer of stile and rail wood doors. Simpson Door Company is one of the oldest continuously operating door plants in the nation, and is the city of McCleary’s main industry and largest employer. “We are grateful to call McCleary our home for the past century, “said Brad Loveless, Simpson Marketing and Product Development Manager. “The pride associated with each Simpson door is evident in the generations of families here that have dedicated their lives to building them. When purchasing a Simpson door, customers are not only getting a beautiful, handcrafted showpiece for their home, they are getting a part of our home and history as well.”
Simpson’s extensive product line is available through dealers across the U.S. and Canada, and includes hundreds of standard door designs from panel to French to decorative entry doors with matching sidelights and transoms. Simpson doors can be made in a variety of wood species, sizes and glass options, whether a standard door design or a one-of-a-kind custom door. But what separates a Simpson door from other wood doors in the market, is mostly in what you don’t see: Innovative construction techniques and the highest quality materials for internal components, result in a longer lasting door backed by extended warranties.
Industry research continually shows Simpson as number one in brand recognition in the wood door category. Product development and innovation continue to expand Simpson’s offerings with recent additions including its Nantucket® Collection and Performance Series® – exterior wood doors for tough exposures – as well as a number of new contemporary door designs for today’s homes. To make it easier for customers to choose the door that best suits their tastes, Simpson has added a variety of online design tools – “Glass Taste Test,” “Test Drive a Door” and an interactive wood species selector.
Simpson’s strong roots, century of experience and expertise provide customers with confidence that their “Made in the U.S.A.” Simpson doors will make a great first and last impression of their home.
When it comes to choosing the right style of door for your home, Simpson has a helpful design tool to allow homeowners to test drive their new front door by uploading a photo of the front of their home and virtually install doors they are considering — similar to Crestview Doors Door-o-Vision. Simpson Doors also offers a Glass Taste Test — similar to the door test drive — which allows customers to see how various glass options will look on different door styles.
Troy also sent some pricing info for four of the door styles that would work on a mid century colonial style ranch:
Following is the general price range for each door. The specific price will depend on the wood species, glass choice and local market factors.
2035 – Traditional Sash $450 – $500
2039 – Traditional Sash $475 – $525
2182 – Traditional Sash $500 – $550
2184 – Traditional Sash $450 – $500
We think that doors like this — early American-inspired — were likely even more common than mid century modern style doors. It’s nice to know they are still available.
J.P. Perry says
Looking for a solid cross buck door. Either rehung or just single door Any suggestions ?
Thanks
pam kueber says
See our story on where to buy doors — use the Search box or, I think it’s at the top of Exteriors category right now
Michael says
Wow! The two doors at the top of the image are exactly the two doors we had. The diamond-windowed one was the front door, and the other was the side door. They were good, heavy doors.
Tina says
I was ecstatic when I found these Simpson doors. The 9-light crossbuck was exactly what I had in my 50s ranch rambler, but with yellow crinkle glass and in very poor condition. I ordered the exact style door with the delta frost glass pattern. I am pretty happy with the new replacement, but wish I had gone with a glass that was more in style like reed instead. My biggest disappointment is that the glass was installed pattern side out, which I have never seen before. The goop they use to seal in the glass is smeared all over the pattern and impossible to remove. It is a big problem, I work at it a little at a time and can’t get very far as the brown goop is in all the glass nooks and crannies. I have heard good things about the company and hope the quality of the door is better than the quality of the glass instillation. I will say it looks sharp from the curb and I really love not having the yellow light in the entry and living room.
Mary Elizabeth says
Wow, what a problem, Tina!. If I were you I’d call the company to complain. If customer service doesn’t answer you, you can find out who the CEO/Presdient is and send a letter. Suggest that they send someone to clean off the glass or at the least giive you a discount and instructions on how to remove the glue. You never know until you ask.
Jeanie says
Ha! I was hit with a huge wave of nostalgia when I looked at this post. The home I grew up in was a colonial built in 1952, and the front door had the ‘x’ front of the two doors on the top, but a single pane glass front. My parents largely gutted it when they moved there in 1979, but some thoroughly mid-century details remained. Boy do I miss that house; so much I didn’t appreciate about it when I was a kid.
Jeanie says
Just checked homes for sale in the neighborhood I grew up in, since they were all built in the 50s. SO MUCH RETRO EYE CANDY. Beautiful 1950s bathrooms, kitchen appliances and flooring, etc etc. Sigh. One had a mint green and black bathroom that is definitely becoming the inspiration for my own.
Anonypilgrim says
This is exactly my problem. My mid-century modest is built all cottagey. It’s very cute, I love it. But the “classic” mid century stuff doesn’t work. Thanks so much!
Janet says
We’ve installed several Simpson exterior-grade doors in the lower-left arrangement (window over three raised rectangular panels) in our 1930/1940s log house. Interior doors are Simpson’s single-flat-panel Style 20, except where we are using reclaimed doors. Fir makes such a pretty door when you want to leave the wood grain showing. Door knobs in the 1920s-1940s were of a smaller diameter than you usually see now, so we bought Rejuvenation’s “Randall” with 2-inch diameter knob, in unfinished brass.
Mary Elizabeth says
I’ll bet they are gorgeous with those knobs, Janet. Can you send a photo?
I wish I had known they still make the Simpson wooden doors, as when we built our addition to our 1959 ranch, I would have chosen one to coordinate with our other exterior doors instead of the steel door in a similar style suggested by the builder. The interior hollow-core doors in our house were badly scratched up by dogs and a wheel chair belonging to the former owners, so we replaced them all with similar plain wooden (birch) doors.
tammyCA says
Oh, this is so cool…my 1954 house has the diamond pane door and I love it so much. Now if it ever falls apart I’ll be able to replace it. 🙂 🙂 🙂 thank-you!
Jason says
When I built my house a little over a year ago, I chose the Simpson 9 light doors for the 2 main entrances to the home. My house is new, but designed to look summer cottage meets 40’s cape. My builder had never heard of the doors and to this day thinks I’m crazy for wanting wood doors. I absolutely refused to have stamped steel doors with those horrible plastic windows!
Terri says
My 1953 California bungalow came with 2035 as the front door, but the 9 lites are yellow/gold textured glass. It looks very split-personality with the crossbuck!
Mary Florence says
I have a 2035 that we are removing for a remodel. We are enclosing a porch so the doorway is going away. I wish I could reuse it, but it is larger than my kitchen door. Guess we are going to store it in the attic.
Mary Elizabeth says
Or you could bring it to the Habitat for Humanity store for some lucky person to find.