Commitment

Founded in 1981 Historic Doors is proud to celebrate 45 years of quality and craftsmanship.

Our work is fabricated entirely in our Pennsylvania shop by local craftsmen. We provide timeless designs and excellent craftsmanship in wooden doorways and traditional joinery engineered for your site-specific conditions.

An entryway is the centerpiece of a building and the keynote of its design. We believe any building can be significantly improved with a thoughtfully designed entryway that fits seamlessly within its context. Within our name, Historic Doors, we understand that Historic both honors and references the best from the past, while remaining rooted in the present and relevant for the future. 

Order, proportion and harmony are attributes accessible for any project.

Process
Historic Doors employs time-honored techniques in the construction of every door and entryway.

Historic Doors offers a complete design and fabrication service in doorways and traditional joinery.

Every project begins with a design consultation either in person or by means of electronic media. Our services range from simple advice on existing plans to complete research and design development.

We encourage early collaboration with our clients’ installers and contractors for a seamless fit of our work. Once design development is complete, a budget will be established for your project. Upon acceptance and a deposit made, we will produce scaled technical drawings. This will ensure clear communication regarding project details before fabrication begins.

After drawings have been approved, your job will be built in our Kempton, PA workshop. Here, one craftsman will see your project through to completion.

Optional services are available for installing your hardware as well as for finishing. Transportation of your project will be arranged to the jobsite. Final payment will be due at this time.

We are committed to the highest quality of product and design, bringing knowledge, craftsmanship, and fine materials to the art of building.

Capabilities

Historic Doors is well into its fourth decade of designing and building custom architectural wood doors and joinery. Over that time, we have continuously refined the engineering we build into our products. We collaborate with architects and builders to come up with site-specific solutions.

Wood

• Authentic building material for traditional doors and entryways
• Intrinsic beauty
• Renewable resource, natural insulator

Mortise and Tenon Joinery

• Joins vertical and horizontal members of the door for a tight durable fit
• Superior to dowel construction for keeping the door square

Stave Core Construction

• Allows for expansion and contraction through thickness instead of width
• Allows for book matching of solid wood stiles and rails
• Minimizes warping and twisting

Curved Woodwork

• Half-round or elliptical fanlights and radius paneling
• Gothic tracery a specialty

Profiles

• Bring character and style to door design
• Many standard and period-style molding profiles in stock
• Custom profiles available

Glass Options Available

• Can source any type of glass
• True divided light preferred to simulated glass divisions

Door Thickness

• Door thickness dictated by design
• Most exterior doors are 2 1/4″, interior begin at 1″

Machining for Hardware

• Mortising for our customer’s hinges is standard
• Can machine for operating hardware as supplied to us
• Referrals to hardware specialists for best solutions

Wooden Boat Building Materials and Technology

• Boat building adhesives for added durability
• Epoxy coatings over door top and bottom edges and threshold are standard

Wood Species

• Exterior: Spanish Cedar, Mahogany, White Oak, Teak, Walnut or other good weathering wood
• Interior: Includes Red Oak, Cherry, Birch, Maple, Fir and Pine

Partners
We have had the pleasure of working with the following architects:

• Alvin Holm, AIA, Architects
• Archer & Buchanan Architecture
• Bories & Shearron Architecture
• Cram and Ferguson Architects
• Eric J. Smith Architect
• Ferguson & Shamamian Architects
• F. L. Bissinger Architects Inc.
• Hess Landscape Architects
• JMKA Architects
• John Milner Architects, Inc.
• Period Architecture, Ltd.
• Peter Zimmerman Architects
• R.A. Hoffman Architects, Inc.
• Robert S. Bennett
• Spillman Farmer Architects
• Voith & McTavish Architects

Projects
Select Projects List

Historic Doors has also designed and built doors for various residences in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Vermont and Washington DC.

Book

HISTORIC AMERICAN DOORS, Compiled by Historic Doors in 1996 and revised in 2024, includes more than 200 measured drawings from the Historic American Buildings Survey collection. The drawings are classified by architectural style, with introductory comments about each period and style.

Contact us to order a copy of the book.

Media

Play Video

Sacred Geometry

A Lecture by Steve Hendricks

Steve Hendricks was the keynote speaker at Bryn Athyn College’s Presidential Inauguration Ceremony for Dr. Christopher M. Clark on September 25, 2009. Steve Hendricks lectured on contemplative geometry and how ancient geometric concepts and architectural practices contributed to the design of the main entrance of the Theodore and Sally Brickman Center for Student Life and Admissions.

Listen to Podcast

Period Authentic Doors

FEATURING STEVE HENDRICKS
HOSTED BY PETER H. MILLER

A part of our TRADITIONAL BUILDING series of stories and podcast interviews, we spoke with Steve Hendricks of Historic Doors who, with his team of skilled millwork building artisans, makes period authentic exterior doors as well as interior moldings. “Our work has ranged from wood doors for a treehouse, to a clock tower on an old school,” Hendricks explains.