Architecture: Why Old New England Homes Had 2 Front Doors

If you live in New England or have ever visited, you'll notice some older homes have 2 doors side by side. We've seen them in southern New Hampshire and southern Maine. Today's blog shares a story about various reasons why homes were built that way. 

(Photo: Home in Somersworth, NH built in 1900. Credit: Zillow) 

Six Intriguing Reasons Why New England Homes Originally Had Two Doors 

 Jolana Miller, May 12, 2025, Theshark105.3 Radio 

When you see houses with two front doors, do you assume they're duplexes or two-family homes? We have so many around New England, and while they're duplexes now, or have several apartments inside, historically speaking, two front doors had literal reasons behind them.

Living in the oldest part of the country, there's also a good chance that some of those two-door homes you see in Maine or Massachusetts just kept the aesthetic while being a single-family home.

Let's go back to the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, where, according to Family Handyman and The Spruce, there are six reasons homes originally were built with two doors.

DEATH DOOR

In some cases, one door was reserved for the dead, lying in repose in the front parlor, and was only used when someone passed away.

SYMMETRY 

Two Doors Made the Exterior Symmetrical According to an article on Taste of Home.com, symmetry was in style. Georgian-style homes (which were trendy at the time) were designed around balance, order and classical symmetry, often achieved through the use of many windows, two chimneys and a front entry hallway that ran straight through the middle of the house. If a home, for whatever reason, didn’t have this centered hallway, a centrally-placed front door threw things off. The easy fix? Add another door to keep things balanced.

APPEARANCES

Simply put, more than one door looked like you had a home with more rooms.

(Photo: Credit: https://hellofarmhouse.com/) 

HOUSEHOLD FUNCTION

Each door was a separate entrance into the home, with one of the doors being the entrance to the more formal side of the house for parties or important meetings. The other was used for day-to-day living.

Also, if the family had servants, the owners of the home used the right side while servants used the left door.

TEMPERATURE REGULATION

Most homes had one single hallway that stretched the length of the house. However, if you opened the front door, you could send a wind tunnel of hot air or cold air through the house, so two doors helped keep homes temperature-friendly no matter what time of year.

BUDGETARY

Many single-family homes with two front doors did it for budgetary reasons.

Glass was quite expensive, and having it shipped from Europe or literally made onsite in America was not doable, especially since making glass was a specialty trade. That second door was the cheaper alternative since doors don't use nearly as much glass as windows. 

 

Spain Trip #28: Granada: Famous Alhambra Palace Part 1: History

L to R: Tom, Doug, Scott, and Dan

The most famous structure in Granada, Spain is the Alhambra Palace. This is part 1 of our tour of Alhambra Palace and in this blog, we'll begin taking you through! In order to understand it's significance, you need to know what it is and what happened to it throughout history, so we'll tell you and show you. In addition, we ran into some ghosts (which we'll highlight in an upcoming blog). 

HOW DID THE PALACE COME ABOUT IN GRANADA? Before reaching Spain, the Moors had seen and occupied Roman villas. Muhammad I (1230-72) made the Alhambra his palace and much of the work was done in the reigns of Yusuf I (1333-54) and Muhammad V (1354-91). The overall plan of the plateau resembles that of Hadrian's Villa. 

A gated entry into the Alhambra Palace complex

FUN FACT:  In Arabic, Alhambra means Red Castle.

WHEN WAS THE ALHAMBRA PALACE CONSTRUCTED? - Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. In 889 AD it was built as a small fortress. It was built on the remains of ancient Roman fortifications.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PALACE OVER TIME?
1200s -  The palace then fell into disrepair and was ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-13th century by the Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada, who built its current palace and walls.

1333 - It was converted into a royal palace by Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada

1492 - After the conclusion of the Christian Reconquista the site became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella (where Christopher Columbus received royal endorsement for his expedition), and the palaces were partially altered in the Renaissance style.

Inside the palace: the fountain of lions

1526 - Charles I and V commissioned a new Renaissance palace better befitting the Holy Roman Emperor in the revolutionary Mannerist style influenced by Humanist philosophy in direct juxtaposition with the Nasrid Andalusian architecture, but it was ultimately never completed due to Morisco rebellions in Granada.

THEN ABANDONED!  The palace and grounds sat empty for a couple of hundred years and were inhabited by the homeless. 

FUN FACT  FOUNTAIN OF THE LIONS - The Lion Fountain, from which the brilliant Court of the Lions takes its name, dates from the eleventh century.

View of Granada from Alhambra Palace

1815- Alhambra was rediscovered following the defeat of Napoleon, who had conducted retaliatory destruction of the site. The rediscoverers were first British intellectuals and then other north European Romantic travelers.

NEXT: Alhambra Palace Part 2: Architecture

Ireland Trip # 58: A Look at the Architecture of the Cork City Gaol & a Ghost

This is a panoramic shot I managed to take!

In this blog, we'll take a look at the architecture of the creepy Cork City Gaol, because Tom is an architect and has an appreciation for it! Of course, we also ran into a ghost in one of the outbuildings.

The museum's website: http://corkcitygaol.com/about/architecture/ 
said: The Cork City Gaol was built in 1824. It is a listed building, an important part of Irish architectural heritage. A fine example of the work of Sir Thomas Deane, it dates from one of the most distinguished periods in Cork’s architectural history.

Western side of the Gaol

It is a wonderful piece of Georgian/Gothic architecture, with a number of particularly pleasant and unusual features – in fact, from the outside, it looks more like a castle than a purpose built prison. The classical proportions of the building feature Gothic details such as turreted battlements, dripstones etc. The basic shape of the main building is like the capital letter “H”, with the Governor’s House forming the central block.
At each end of the Governor’s House are circular drum galleries, 3 storeys high linking into the cell wings. These are lighted from central roof lanterns. The ends of each of the single-sided cell wings have beautifully proportioned circular towers, offsetting the austerity of the wings.

Hallway in an outbuilding

The remodelled (1870s) double-sided West cell wing, in contrast to the others, gives a remarkable sense of space with its high arched hallway and catwalks on either side giving access to the cells. Behind the main building was the Hospital and also, the Debtors Prison (both yet to be restored).

GHOST IN THE OUTBUILDING - Of course, ghosts weren't just limited to the main gaol. There was one in the outbuilding, too, and he gave me his name! 
  As we walked by the outbuilding (pictured here with the long, empty corridor) Tom said he smelled a "sickly sweet smell." Right at that time I clearly heard the name "MacGhee!" from inside the building. Of course, there was no one there... it was just a former inmate or employee calling out a name (which may or may not have been his). 

One of the outbuildings behind the Gaol

The entire Gaol complex is contained within an oval outer wall, with entry through the Gatehouse ……
an entrance door of strong oak, studded with flat nails and situated under the Gallows.

Backside of the Gaol

NEXT: WHAT IT"S LIKE TO BE IN A CELL

Another Architectural "What Not to Do"

Being the architect, Tom thought it would be good to show “what not to do.” One of Tom's favorite architectural critics is not an architect at all. In fact, he is a bit of a kook to some. But once a month, he likes to poke a finger in the eye of architects. And, for the most part, he gets it right. Here is this month’s architectural eyesore: The Hespeler Library of Cambridge, Ontario.
“The original building was constructed in 1923 with funds from the Carnegie endowment; it was expanded in 1981.
In 2007, the City of Cambridge decided to expand the library yet again. The city specified that the winning design must “preserve the historic nature of the building.”
Phew, no radical changes to the original building, right? Wrong!!
Apparently, additions that “compliment the original architecture” do not win design awards. So the solution was simple: build a giant glass box around the original building. Ta da! The old building is "preserved" and the architect wins an award for Design Excellence from the Ontario Architects Association in 2008!
(PHOTO: WHAT THEY COVERED UP)
Everyone wins except the occupants. The triple glazed wall panels were apparently "value-engineered" out of the project in favor of cheaper double glazed panels that has a poorer ability to mitigate heat loss/gain during cold overcast/sunny weather respectively.” – James Kunstler
(VIEW FROM INSIDE THE GLASS FRONT OF THE BUILDING)

Some Funny Architectural Errors

Tom found these photos of actual architectural quality control "misses." I think one or two of them are from Europe. The video camera behind the sign, the balcony over a railroad track, and the mysterious balcony without a way to get out on it, and the way a builder worked the streetlight into a couple of balconies. Clever! Eeeesh!

An Architectural "Eyesore of the Week"

Tom follows a number of blogs, from Economic to Architectural blogs (because he's an architect). Whenever we're out driving, he'll notice homes with poorly designed additions, and says "That's someone who should've hired an architect." Anyway, Tom says that each month the architectural blogger he follows posts a commentary on architectural eyesores and writes a critique on each one. Sometimes these critiques really are priceless and his comments are often scathing reviews of people’s lack of taste and examples of why “you should have hired an architect.” Here's the "EYESORE OF THE WEEK": The Blogger's Comments (who is also an architect): This monstrosity stirred up a lot of shock and consternation as it rose up on a middling-quality block on the north side of Saratoga Springs. The general complaint was that the building was "too tall," but this was actually the least of its errors. The problems stem not from the structure’s height but from poor proportioning and design. Basically, what you have here is a crab shack stuck on top of a three story packing crate. Note that they have used a heavier darker color for the upper floors rather than on the base; this makes the building look top-heavy. Notice that the volumes are simply stacked, like pallets in a frozen food warehouse. Notice the change-of-materials gambit on only one side at the ground level; it was supposed to give the base "weight" but actually looks incongruous and dumb. Notice the poor quality of the materials used for the screened-in porch and flimsy appearance of the columns. The windows are mere holes in the walls. There is absolutely no meaningful or graceful ornamentation. The neighbors are right about this being an ugly monstrosity that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. Our knowledge and skill in building has been reduced almost to zero in this culture.