Did Grandpa make these interesting doors, or were they mass-produced? Here’s a woddity to wonder about and to ask — has anyone else ever seen a door like this before — and is there a particular name for this nifty wood design other than the rather blasè ‘sliding storm & screen’? Susan is the lucky owner and writes:
We own a 1956 Texas Ranch home, and the house has these really cool exterior doors. I’ve looked all over the internet, but can’t find the door. It is a wooden door, with the top half with 6 glass panes. That part drops/slides down to expose the screen, thus making it a 1/2 screen door! Any idea what this style of door is called? Thanks!
Rick G says
This is a fantastic, interesting door you have there !!! – Thanks for getting this on here Pam; I really dig unique things like this !!
Cara says
I have one here in S. Florida. They weren’t uncommon here, I hear from my contractor who specializes in old houses. I think probably they’re a hot-weather adaptation.
Mine has a set of metal louvres on the outside. If anyone’s around here, and wants one, there’s a swing down door in a soon-to-be demolished house in my neighborhood.
Grama Robin says
Our front door is similar except it has a window covering most of the door (3 lights above and 3 below a larger window) which opens like the door. Only it’s just a part of the door. Very nice for air flow but impossible to replace. Ours is kind of beat up, being from the 20s. It’s called a Santa Barbara door (yes I’m in Santa Barbara). I used to go to a doctor who had one and I’d sit in the waiting room trying to figure out how to steal that door!
Barth says
There are similar functioning windows at the HELLMAN-EHRMAN MANSION (Sugar Pine Point State Park, Tahoe City, California). The house dates to around 1897. I don’t remember any doors, but the windows slide down into the wall leaving a fixed screen on top. Very cool. I remember these from a stay years ago – nice to see that there are doors, too! What a good carpenter comes up with is genius, whatever the generation.
Mike says
I have a post WWII Sears kit home with an original side door with two square windows making up the top half of the door. There are now painted frozen “squeeze-me” latches that would have lowered each window between the front side and the back side of the door to let air in through screens, which are unfortunately long gone. With a little work and some screen fabrication, I’ll probably restore them…unless I can find a similar new door.
Susan Guerra says
Thank you for posting this! This is our house in Kyle, Texas, just south of Austin. Looking at all the posts above, it seems that this style must have been particular to Texas. My mom said that the first house they bought had doors like these (that were later removed) and she said she thought a local mill might have produced them.
I’ve been wondering if I could get another one because at some point, the previous owners replaced one of these doors with a modern storm door. I’d love to find another one that we could replace the storm door with. In all, we have 5 doors like this in our house. It’s very possible that the doors were built here because this was a very custom home built on a ranch here in Kyle.
Thank you for all your comments!
Jared Wolfinger says
I have one on my back door. It looks exactly the same as the one above. I was told it was told they were called “bootleggers” doors. the “bootlegger” didn’t have to open the door all the way and perhaps get robbed. I’m in Ga. so it’s not just a Texas thing.
pam kueber says
Bootlegger door! I love it!
Rene says
My dad has a mountain bungalow in the north Georgia mountains. It was built in the thirties but had some reno in the late sixties with a back porch and that same door. It’s my favorite feature in the summer since there’s no central air!
Lisa says
I have one & it’s my favorite door! It’s a single pane window. I live in a 1925 home in California. I always wondered what the story was because it’s on our back house that was built later. We “heard” the doors were on the front house. A mystery!
Gwen says
I have a door like yours…..single sheet of heavy glass…..in a 1950’s house built by my husband’s grandfather. Not sure if the door was something purchased locally at the time or if it was salvaged from somewhere. There were several additions to the house so I don’t know if it was an original exterior door.
Kate H says
I lived in a house in Fort Worth that had a back door like this. It was all wood on the bottom, with three horizontal panes at the top, which slid down. Maybe this was A Thing in Texas for cross-ventilated houses.
Misti says
My husband and I just bought a home in Austin built in 1960 and our kitchen door is exactly like this, just three panes at the top!
https://flic.kr/p/Nx6eRs