Pictures of original Pocket Doors?

@cate
Correct, the doors are between the front and rear parlors.

shahnandersen

in General Discussion 4 years and 10 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years and 10 months ago

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Hi Brownstoners – we are planning a renovation including pocket doors on our main floor, and would be interested to see any pictures of original or early examples of how such an arrangement might have looked when houses like ours were originally built/designed. We’re ina frame house in Windsor Terrace. My google-fu is failing me here, so thanks for any photos you might have from your own or other original/restored doors!

cate | 4 years and 10 months ago

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What era is your house? Please do not tell me the city tax date. it is wrong. Pocket doors were different in every decade or so starting in the 1820s and 1830s. You will see some early examples in the book “Brick and Brownstones.” Also you can sometimes see good original examples in listing photos in Brownstoner stories about houses for sale and sometimes about houses being restored. Typically the doors resembled the regular doors in the house. The ones on the parlor floor often had glass, and the ones on the top floor were often solid wood. They were framed with the same moldings found throughout the house. Sometimes the early ones appeared as part of a deep opening framed with columns and closets on either side. The circa 1850s-1870s ones sometimes had arched openings like the other doors in the houses. If you are on good terms with your neighbors, some in the same row will have the identical original details and will allow you to check them out and take photos and measurements.

Guest User | 4 years and 10 months ago

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Thanks! Newer – built 1910 or so.

NeoGrec | 4 years and 10 months ago

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In my experience, most pocket doors match the appearance of the other (standard) doors in a house. So if your doors are original that might be the way to go. We had a pair of solid core (MDF) doors made to replace the glass French doors — which didn’t provide enough privacy or sound proofing — to our tenant’s living room. We had a lot of choices of moldings, panel styles etc. and were able to closely match the original doors in our house. IIRC, my carpenter ordered them from Dykes Lumber. The cost was pretty reasonable.

stevecym | 4 years and 10 months ago

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i have been thinking about this. i do not get in too many houses built after say 1900 and there was a style shift in the Edwardian period, say between 1905 and 1910. we see more oak. we also see more top hung pocket doors down in that area but since i had not had the parts or know how to work on them until a little over a year ago, i never did and hence are less familiar with the style.

my thought is, they might have been one panel over one panel. could have been glass over a panel as well. but if they got real wide, perhaps not. now that i am writing, i recall working on a pair of top hung doors in a wood frame down there and i will try to find the email address of that person and see if i can reach out to him. stand by.

NeoGrec | 4 years and 10 months ago

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Personally, I really like pocket doors with glass panels in them. They were commonplace in earlier townhouses (1840s-70s), then came back into style in the early 20th century, as Steve noted. It’s a look that could work well in a wood frame house.

restorationcontractor | 4 years and 10 months ago

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Are there any other original doors in your house to match?
In many of the 1910 era builds you would have 2 vertical panels below with single pane frosted or glue chip glass above. However that is just one common style, there were many different styles.
I grew up and frequently work in the area so I am somewhat familiar.

James | 4 years and 10 months ago

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Hi there- I have two original pocket doors that we need to sell–the previous owners ran plumbing through their pocket so they can’t close anymore. Here are pics, get in touch if you are interested [IMG_4286](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:ow8n:img_4286.jpeg.jpg)