Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I do declare!


I took this picture down in "Chahlston" last fall at an Antebellum manse, this door fascinated me!  Why oh why you silly boy?  Well take a closer look at it's structure.  CLOSER!

Not only a door but a giant window.  The only way to get out to the "palazzo" is to open the two bottom window-door panes up to a six foot height! 

Why didn't I take a picture of the opened fenestration?  Because I'm a numbskull!

Fiddle-dee-dee, Mr. Rhett!

-please read above text in high society Southern drawl-

11 comments:

ArchitectDesign™ said...

I love those triple hung windows,too. Thomas Jefferson used them in all of the houses he designed such as Montecello or Poplar Forest!
Those shutters are really unusual too -don't they look like interior doors? I"ve always wanted to go to Charleston!

P.Gaye Tapp at Little Augury said...

the place is magical- a must visit. pgt

DM said...

I didn't realize that about Mr. Jefferson! Road trips must be planned!

Chahlston's a feast for the architects eye!

(pack probiotics)

Scott Fazzini said...

Didn't Thomas Jefferson design those windows (are they called jib windows?) as a means of saving tax? I think that I read somewhere that a persons property taxes were in some way affected by the amount their home had... maybe I'm making this up.. : )

Scott Fazzini said...

Oh, by the way the window/door is gorgeous nonetheless!

DM said...

I wish I could tell you! I spent about 4 hours trying to figure a way to somewhat describe what they even were...I'll do some research starting with "jib windows." Thank you!

The Down East Dilettante said...

Triple-hung window sash---one of my favorite architectural motifs, bar none.

btw, a jib window is a regular window with a little door under the sash.

The Down East Dilettante said...

and how on earth has your marvelous blog escaped my short attention span until now? Never again will I be without it.

Fiddle dee dee

DM said...

THANK YOU D.E.D! For the compliment and for solving our window problem!

I'm going to try and use "triple-hung window sash" in a sentence once a day for the next month!

Christina @ Fashion's Most Wanted said...

The doors are indeed fabulous.

In answer to Scott Fazini's question, In England William III brought in the window tax in 1696. houses were taxed on the number of windows they had, a crude measure of prosperity or income. In some cases windows were blocked temporarily when an inspection was due, in others they just bricked the windows up. You often see London houses with the side windows filled in. Arguably this is where the term 'daylight robbery' came from. Thankfully it was abolished in 1851.

I'm adding your blog to my blogroll xx

DM said...

Christina thank you! That is so fascinating...i've always wondered where daylight robbery came from, i thought it had something to do with candles!