Henry Petroski - The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship

ALSO by HENRY PETROSKI

To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure (2012)

An Engineers Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession (2011)

The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems (2010)

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture (2007)

Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design (2006)

Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering (2004)

Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design (2003)

Paperboy: Confessions of a Future Engineer (2002)

The Book on the Bookshelf (1999)

Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (1997)

Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing (1996)

Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America (1995)

Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering (1994)

The Evolution of Useful Things (1992)

The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (1990)

Beyond Engineering: Essays and Other Attempts to Figure Without Equations (1986)

To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985)

THE
HOUSE

WITH
Sixteen
Handmade
Doors

A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship

HENRY PETROSKI

with photographs by
Catherine Petroski

Copyright 2014 by Henry Petroski

Photographs copyright 2014 Catherine Petroski

All rights reserved

First Edition

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

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Book design by Charlotte Staub

Production manager: Julia Druskin

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Petroski, Henry, author.

The house with sixteen handmade doors : a tale of architectural choice and craftsmanship / Henry Petroski ; with photographs by Catherine Petroski. First Edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-393-24204-1 (hardcover)

1. Architecture, DomesticMaineArrowsic. 2. Phinney, Robert Edgar, 19151989. 3. Petroski, HenryHomes and hauntsMaineArrowsic. 4. Petroski, CatherineHomes and hauntsMaineArrowsic. 5. Arrowsic (Me.)Buildings, structures, etc. I. Petroski, Catherine, illustrator. II. Title.

NA7238.A77P48 2014

728'.370974185dc23

2014006423

ISBN 978-0-393-24205-8 (e-book)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd. Castle House,

75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT

To our friends and neighbors on the Road, and in memory of V.P., who loved visiting Pineledge

CONTENTS

THE
HOUSE
WITH
Sixteen
Handmade
Doors

THIS IS A STORY about a house and its environs. To my wife, Catherine, and me it is a special house because now it is ours, but it was not always. It was conceived sixty-odd years ago by an amateur carpenter who immersed himself first in designing it and then in building the unique structure. The house may be modest, but it is also a model of thoughtful design and careful craftsmanship.

So much of the house remains in its original state that it has been possible to deconstruct it to tell the story of its making. This deconstruction has not been physical, however, because no nail was pulled, no screw unscrewed, no board removed to look into the houses innards. The nature of its design and the manner of its construction provide ample opportunity to examine the underside of wooden floors, to study the back sides of handmade doors, and to peer into the dark corners of unfinished closets to ferret out much about the man and his house. But as transparent as some of its structure may be, there are also parts of it that are mysterious and seemingly inscrutable. This book describes both the known and the unknown: it celebrates the former and puts forth what I hope are plausible explanations for the latter.

Because so much of the charm of this house is in its setting and in its details, and because a picture is worth countless words, Catherines photographs are an integral part of the book. They capture the house in context and reveal the simple elegance of its lines and the serene beauty of its location. Although it was never intended to be a grand house, its builder had a grand plan. He did not write down his plan in words on paper but he did realize it with nails in wood. The photographs testify to that.

Previous owners and their children have returned to this place in Maine with all the excitement and fond memories that proud and loyal alumni bring to reunions at their alma mater. Without the stories and recollections of those growing up and living in the house, its story might have been one of architecture and technology devoid of human interest and a soul. By sharing their knowledge and feelings about the place, those who have returned to visit it have populated it with real people with real dreams, hopes, and joys. Without such people and their families, no house could be a home, and no book a story. I am grateful to all who have helped breathe life into both. Those whose names I know and recall are acknowledged at the end of the tale.

Pineledge

Summer 2013

PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS HAD a hard time finding our place in Maine. No matter how precise our driving instructionseven when we give them down to the tenth of a mile between turnsfirst-time visitors invariably call us from their car within shouting (but not sighting) distance, seeking reassurance that they are on the right track. Those with a GPS device in their car doubt the directions on the screen. We would probably do the same if we were looking for a house on a road that doesnt even look like a road.

The cause of the confusion is that our modest place is reached via a right-of-way through what is the property of our next-door neighbor, whose large and imposing house is as hard to miss as ours is to see from the main road. Visitors looking for us have no trouble following our instructions up to what we have jokingly called our carriage house or gatehouse, but they have second thoughts about making the final turn onto the right fork. It looks like our neighbors driveway, which it is.

Lifes small and large decisions are fraught with anxieties and fears of making the wrong choice. As Robert Frost did, most of us pause at forks in the road, and those who hesitate too long can pay the hefty toll of staying lost. We all want to choose the correct fork, but indecision will freeze us in our tracks and let the trail get cold.

That is where Catherine and I felt we were after several years of looking at real estate on the granite coast of Maine, and that is how we do not want visitors to feel when looking now for our place beyond the fork in the road. Most of them seem to know the perils of indecision, and that is why they give us a ring when they think that they are close by but cannot imagine that the road before them will take them to our place. They are reluctant to head toward a barnlike structure with a green tin roof where the road appears to end.