If you ever hear mention of salvage doors or reclamation doors, those are in reference to antique entry doors turned back to the 1715's to 1830's. 28 counts of imperial bricks made up the common door height up until the 1950's when they were replaced by metric bricks. Antique homes are harder to restore using a standard size contemporary door because it will not be the correct fit and then require a custom built frame. Old wooden doors also add elegance and history to streamlined modern homes.
1715's to 1830's Georgian and Regency homes had simple architecture, with stone work limited to upscale properties. A fanlight was the one embellishment common in these bare-looking antique entry doors with six non-glass panels. 1900's to 1920's Edwardian homes were the first to consume more space, with oversized doorways flanked by sidelites and decorated with art nouveau or neo-Georgian glass panels. Steps were built of either stone or thin metal. Fewer households employed house maids, resulting in the plain black covered, forged iron door handles.
Between the above mentioned periods, much celebrated 1830's to 1900's Victorian residences reflected the era of penchant for adornment. Hallways and entranceways were narrows from Edwardian but decked out with brass work on knives and hardware as much as for sitting room and bedroom furniture. Classic Victorian entry doors each consist of four or six glazed panels, with stained glass in grander homes. A dropped letter box is located at the bottom of the upper half, where it is not reachable by a stray dog, so the lower half usually ends up being shorter.
1920's traditional hardwood doors made use of heavy oak or mahogany, decorative glass panels and sidelights, wrought iron door furniture. Many modern homes hark back to those meticulously detailed colonial doors. 1930's moderne doors rated geometric glass panels, like sun rays or chevron patterns, either mirrored or colored. With chrome finishing easing out iron work, their vintage Hollywood appeal added glamor to antique entry doors. French windows with a grille embedded between double glass panes or layered over a single glass pane, including true divided lite French doors, are also popular choices.