Hurrah For Tall Doors!

Fairly often—though not nearly often enough—you'll find on the brownstones of Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens these wonderful old sets of high, arching double doors. They're usually worked out in three sections: square panels at the bottom, long rectangular panels in the middle and quarter-circle windows at the top, like two curious eyes staring out onto the street. Sometimes the lower panels are windows as well. Almost all of them are high decorative, and, if they're kept in any sort of decent condition, they're all magnificent.


I love these doors. They soar up to the lintel and, when I look at them, my spirit momentarily soars too. They're grand and commanding and elevate the character of the street. It's a pleasure to walk through them.


Quite a few doors in the same neighborhoods are like the one below: still high and arched, but the upper semi-circle is merely a window and not part of the working door. While these are not nearly as breathtaking as the full doors, they are also handsome. I'm not sure if most of them used to be full doors and were altered at some point, or if they were always had their bisected structure.


Unfortunately, it's very rare that you can find two or three such doors in a row. That's because there are always plenty of genius homeowners who are ready to rip out the grand old doors and replace them with some Home Depot wonder—like the one below. Yeah, good one, bud! It's about as boxy and dwarfed as your imagination. And think of all you're saving on your winter heating bill! That made the change worth it, didn't it? I mean, didn't it?