In a message dated 7/29/99 6:05:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

> An apartment hotel next door to our house
>  in a dense neighborhood of Chicago, built in the mid-1920s
>  with a distinctive facade, had "summer doors."

Interesting -- I know of a "country inn" here that also has interior louvered
doors, built as an addition to an existing residence in the 1920s. It must
have been a thing to do at the time.

As a follow up: I have very little to go on as yet. A southern-born friend
says that these doors are very common down there. (Pretty anecdotal -- how do
you put THAT into a serious report! "My friend Nancy says....") There seems
to be a dirth of information about them otherwise. Someone gave me a lead to
a person at Historic Landmarks Foundation, where there is a specialist on
American vernacular architecture. No reply as yet. If I hear anything, I will
let you know. I am sure you-all are dying to find out.

Anyway, sounds like a good thesis topic: "Interior doors of the American
Vernacular." Hypothesis: All houses had them ... not.

Oh well...just a thought.

Mary