Thursday, January 27, 2011

Southern Turf

The name of my book is "Southern Turf." Why? Because that is the name of the beloved building I work in, and the inspiration for my book. The idea for my book started with a door.

The door, located on the second floor of this building, must be 15 feet tall, and about 6 inches thick, made from a very sturdy and beautiful mahogany. It is scuffed and dinged, and shows its age well with a deep patina. I absolutely adore the hardware used for the keyguard and door handle. It is original to 1895, and is a very unusual scrollwork design, and I'm thinking this design will need to be incorporated in some fashion in the artwork for my book.

Another wonderful feature on the door is a little sliding panel, pocketed in the door at eye level, about 4x5 inches, with a metal finger hook on the interior side of the door. Since this is the only door in the building that still exists of this size, width, and made from such a strong and durable wood, I deduce that the office behind the magnificent door was used by the owner, or perhaps the person that handled the money for the gambling that took place on that floor in its heyday. Said person could use peer out the sliding panel to see if a friend or foe was on the other side of the door.

I have noticed a few semi-circular, crescent moon shaped indentations on the exterior side of the door, near the keyguard. Looks like old hammer marks to me - perhaps made by an intruder's vain effort to get in? That is purely a guess.

The other fact that leads me to believe that someone important was protected in that office by the sturdy door is that there is a secret passageway that looks like an unassuming closet, but in fact is a pass through to the office behind it. Perhaps if there was a bad person on the other side of the main door, the person in the office could skin out via the passage way.

I could go on and on. I love this building, and cannot wait to share it with everyone when my book is done!

1 comment:

  1. A secret passageway? That's awesome! Now I'm curious about which building you're in!

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