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The Old House Building a Home Porches & Decks

Access to underneath front porch from indoors??

last year

Hi! My kids recently found this "hidden" spot- It's a 2'x2' hinged door on the wall and when you open it, it open up to this big unfinished area under the front porch!

Whoa! Anyone know what is the purpose of this?? Is it a legal thing that they need access to under the porch?? Curious if I could one day finish it and use it for storage.

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Comments (14)

functionthenlook
last year
last modified: last year
How old is the house? Did the door go to the basement?
M. S
Original Author
last year
the door is from the basement. I think it was built in 1925
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functionthenlook
last year
Could be a coal shoot or door to bringing in wood. Depends on what they used for heating in 1925. Around my area it would of been coal. I suspect your porch was not original to the house if it opens to under it.
sandk
last year
My grandparents’ house had a root cellar under the front stoop with a bit larger door than yours. That house was built after the coal era.
M. S
Original Author
last year
Wow this is so fascinating
functionthenlook
last year
Some older homes had doors like that in the kitchen for milk delivery also. If you ever remove a wall you will find out if it was heated by coal. The black coal dust got everywhere.
M. S
Original Author
last year
ha now I want to renovate just so I can see!
WestCoast Hopeful
last year
Our old house had a hatch in basement to storage under porch that was accessed from inside. Didn’t realize this was weird at all
M. S
Original Author
last year
@WestCoast Hopeful was it finished? This one kind of looks like a dungeon lol
nhb22
last year
I agree on the coal door theory, and the fact that the porch was added later. We had one into the basement of a home that was built in '42.

Would be neat to see some photos of your discovery and of the outside of your porch.
Fori
last year
Sounds like a root cellar, but I'm surprised the door isn't bigger.
WestCoast Hopeful
last year
Nope. Rock floor bottom. Cold storage type space
M. S
Original Author
last year
I have to try to get the door open, it's a little finicky. Stay tuned ;)
M. S
Original Author
last year
I looked up the house on those websites that show what your house looked like in the 40's. And you can see the coal door!! Very cool.

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