My Window on the Dining Room

There was, at one time, a sort of dumb waiter door that lead from the kitchen to the dining room. On the kitchen side it was located next to where the large cast iron stove was. On the dining room side it opened next to where a sideboard would have sat. Originaly there was a door about 2 feet square that lifted up into the wall. It was kind of like a single hung sash window. It worked with pulleys and weights just like an old window. Back in the 20s when the house was cut up into apartments the dining room and kitchen ended up in 2 different apartments so they removed the door and boarded up the opening. I’m restoring it.

This was a real surprise find. Since it had been done 80+ years ago and was covered with many layers of paint and wallpaper it was impossible to tell it was even there. It was not until I removed all of the wallpaper (17+ layers) that I found the boarded up opening. Although they removed the actual door they left most of the door frame in the wall. The frame was in bad shape, and missing a few pieces, but there was enough left to use it as a pattern to construct a new one. I hope to get the new frame in the wall tomorrow. Next I can start making the door.

You can sort of see the opening in the wall just above the bead board in the picture below in an earlier post. It is to the left of new opening I just framed in.