Historic Landmark Fort Greene entrance masterfully recreated
Stately double entry doors custom made for a historic 19th century Fort Greene brownstone.
Not all brownstone entry doors are lucky enough to have survived decades of daily use. Over time, doors do wear out and require replacement, and sometimes entrances are retrofitted with poorly fitting doors that don’t really fit the original size of the entryway, requiring unsightly gaps to be filled with plywood or other materials.
Take for example this Italianate townhouse in historic Fort Greene. It’s part of a trio of row houses on Carlton Avenue designed in 1873 by prominent architect Marshall J. Morrill. Over the years, the building was modified inside and out, and at some point the original double doors were replaced by a poorly fitting single door that required plywood infill to close up gaps in the entryways.
As part of a larger renovation, the new owners sought to bring the entryway back to its original splendor by reintroducing the classic double door configuration. The design of the doors was inspired by the 1940s tax photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives. Made from reclaimed flat leaf yellow pine painted black, the sophisticated set features graceful and elongated glazed upper panes and custom-cut raised profile molding.
The defining feature of the brownstone entryway is the paneled enframement surrounding a classic pair of double entry doors. The enframement typically includes the door frame, door jamb, and decorative columns or brick molding surrounding the entryway. These sometimes intricately designed enframements contribute a huge amount of architectural character to the townhome. Remarkably, many entryways whose original doors are long gone retain well-preserved enframement components!
An entryway transformation of a historic Fort Greene brownstone located in a NYC Landmark designated district.
The enframement of this Carlton Avenue brownstone was one such door, with all its decorative elements crisp and intact. As historic door replacement specialists, we can learn much amount about a building’s original door by studying the existing enframement. In some cases, we can even install the new doors on the existing jamb without much modification.
In this case, we were able to discern the original panel layout from the matching enframement panels. During the 19th century, doors would almost always have been sold along with enframements, and the careful alignment and proportion of elements between door and enframement would have been a major consideration for any craftsman of the period.
Without a doubt, the new set of doors has increased the curb appeal and revived the 19th century aesthetic of the building.
Historic brownstone doors in fabrication, featuring upper arched glazed panes and lower wood panels framed by bolection molding.