The old Hotel Syracuse (located, conveniently, in Syracuse, NY) has doors
which I believe have provision for enclosing hanging clothes.  A porter can
unlock the outer panel and remove the clothes for cleaning and return them
later.  I don't know if the clothes can be accessed from inside the room.

These may've been common in the older hotels but I'd never seen them before.

They survived one or more renovations of the hotel.  Someday the hotel is
bound to renovate itself as they have electrical extension cords routed
under the carpets, a violation of The Electrical Code...

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin C. Tangora (312) 996-3064 [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 1999 5:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Interior louvered doors (was Re: BP Serious or Social?)


This isn't going to help Mary very much, I'm afraid, but I think
it's very interesting:  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."

These were louvered doors that were placed like screen doors
on the outside (corridor side) of the normal doors.  You had your
residential hotel accommodation with private bath, and in the summer
the management brought these doors out of storage and put them up,
so that you could leave your regular permanent door open for air,
and still have privacy and security.

I never saw these.  In the 1980s the building was bought by a cult
and used as a commune, and the leader of the group told me
they had found one of these doors, and someone knew what they
were called.  In the 1990s the building was sold to an NPO
for conversion to a residence for the formerly homeless, or whatever,
and their architect was ruthless about discarding or destroying
everything historic about the building, while claiming and receiving
the historic tax credits.  But I digress.

The community has dozens of apartment hotels, and possibly others
had summer doors; I should ask around; but the people who own and
operate these buildings are not very community-minded and I have
not got to know many of them.

> Date:    Mon, 26 Jul 1999 12:58:06 EDT
> From:    Mary Krugman <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: BP Serious or Social?
>
> OK, serious question.
>
> I am researching a mansion in southern NJ (1826). Existing 6-panel doors
> seem consistent with an early period of construction. There is one with
> fixed louvers, mounted on the door frame between the 1st floor main
> (central) hall and the adjoining stairhall. It is reported (1957) that
> there were other doors with fixed louvers elsewhere in the house. No
> evidence of those doors exists today. (It went through a "restoration" in
> the early 70s -- we are trying to trace what's left of original fabric.)
> I have seen other examples where bedrooms had 2 doors-- one solid with
> panels on outside of door frame, the other a fixed-louver door mounted on
> the inside, swinging into the room.
>
> Q: Anyone know period of significance for interior doors with louvers?
> More often fixed or moveable? Always (usually?) paired with a solid door?
> Are they primarily southern in origin (the early owners had some
> connections in Charleston)? How prevalent were they in the Middle
> Atlantic states?
>
> Any helpful push in the right direction would be great.
>
> Mary Krugman
>