Thomas James Store, Doors:
Carved initials and other markings can be found on the
store's double doors made of oak, which also never received any finish coat.
For security, the doors were made double-thick by nailing interior vertical
boards to exterior horizontal ones. The builder
clinched them together with stout hand-made nails, whose heads are seen
here. Machine cut nails with double-struck heads—an indication of the store’s
early 19th-century construction date—were used throughout the rest of the building.
(Those same nails would have proved ill-suited for constructing the
doors since they could easily snap.)
(Photo: Jorin Hood)