An Introduction to the Gettysburg Doorscape
Seth Hinshaw, 2/9/2019
On a recent trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, I had a little down time and walked some of the main streets looking at the doors. The four streets off the center square are Carlisle Street (heading north), Chambersburg Street (west), Baltimore Street (south), and York Street (East). It seemed to me that the older buildings are mostly located south of the square. The houses north of the square, particularly above the train station, are mostly larger houses dating to the 1880s and 1890s. While the first thing that comes to mind when someone says "Gettysburg" is the 1863 battle, the borough of Gettysburg is an interesting case study in the history of doors. Soldiers returned for reunions in the 1910s and 1920s, and interestingly many doors in Gettysburg appear to have been replaced during these years.
The following introduction to the doorscape of Gettysburg is broken into four blog posts. The first post will cover the years 1800 to 1870, covering the doors that might have been installed at the time of the 1863 battle.
 |
The oldest doors in Gettysburg that survive are standard six-paneled doors. Some of the oldest buildings were likely log houses like this house (which has a standard six-paneled door). Usually, log and plank houses were constructed with batten doors, but those doors often were well-worn after a century of use and were replaced. |
 |
The standard six-panel door seems to be the oldest door type in Gettysburg. Several of these doors are replacement units that date to the 1920s. In several instances, it is difficult to determine the age of the door just by looking at its exterior. The standard six-paneled door here an example of a possibly replaced door. The transom is interesting and likely original, however. |
 |
Another early door type was the eight-panel door. The standard version of the door featured alternating frieze panels and vertical panels like the door shown in this image. While in some cases the eight-panel doors in Gettysburg appear to be replacement units, in this case the paneling of the architrave indicates that the entrance was built with an eight-panel door. |
 |
An alternate version of the eight-paneled door emerged during the Federal period, which featured six small panels at the top over two vertical panels. This Gettysburg door is an example. Its panels indicate that the door dates to the Greek Revival period, during which the sizes of panels were becoming the same size and often square. The door is a bifold unit, and its panels feature squared corners. |
 |
This door is a two-leaf version of the door just mentioned. Note that the panels are not square in this double door, reflecting the appearance of the door when it was introduced rather than the Greek Revival influence of the mid-nineteenth century. |
 |
Italianate doors began to appear circa 1850. The remaining doors in this blog post are Italianate variants. The earliest Italianate doors did not feature the inset lights that we associate with this door type. The door shown here is a four-paneled unit with angled corners of the heavy molded panels. |
 |
This Gettysburg door is a typical Italianate paneled door. Its two upper panels are arched (or rounded), with smaller panels below the lock rail. The slot in the lock rail reads "Newspapers" rather than "letters" since mail delivery had not been instituted when the door was built. The door is operated by a drum-shaped pressed wood knob that dates to circa 1880, and both the newspaper slot and the escutcheon date to the 1880s or 1890s. |
 |
This is a two-leaf Italianate sash door right at the square in Gettysburg. |
 |
The final Italianate door shown here is this two-leaf entrance. Each leaf contains two panels. The lower panels are square and feature a low-relief pyramid. The upper panels feature an elongated pyramid. Doors with these low-relief pyramids mostly date to the 1870s and thus were not likely in place at the time of the battle. Its pressed metal knob features a six-pointed star and dates to circa 1890, as does its door plate with two keyholes. |
Earlier blog posts
8/28/2020 Chicago Millwork Supply Company catalog of 1931
10/6/2019 History of Hinkle & Company (1833-1870)
9/17/2019 History of Mulliner Box & Planing Company
6/3/2019 J.R. Quigley Plant, Gloucester City, New Jersey
4/23/2019 Cleveland Cottage Door
4/13/2019 Trenton historic door #2
4/10/2019 Trenton Doors #1
3/6/2019 Pressed Wood Door Knobs
2/23/2019 Gettysburg Doorscape, Part 4
2/18/2019 Gettysburg Doorscape, Part 3
2/12/2019 Gettysburg Doorscape, Part 2
2/9/2019 An Introduction to the Gettysburg Doorscape
1/22/2019 The Blake Latch
1/19/2019 Rare Four-Panel Door of 1890s
1/5/2019 Cast Iron Rim Locks
12/28/2018 Inaugural Blog Post