Don’t you just love this door? On my recent trip to Charleston, where the people ooze that southern hospitality, I had the best time walking the streets and admiring the historic homes. I’m not normally one to go for the old. I don’t like old plumbing, old furnaces, ghosts in the attic, or creepy crawlies in the basement. Or basements. We don’t have those in Texas because the ground is like cement.
I was curious why the homes in Charleston had those long, funky side porches with bright doors. After a bit of digging, I discovered these are hospitality doors. When the homeowner was accepting visitors, they opened these doors to signal guests could stop by.
I would love this. So much better than people stopping by unannounced. You would have time to do makeup and hair. You would have time to run to the store for refreshments and those fancy little cookies. You would have time to prepare topics of discussion.
After doing a drive-by in my neighborhood, I discovered no porches. Not a single one large enough to hold a chair. And, to add to my dismay, we recently had someone steal a welcome sign off my neighbor’s front porch. So, I guess the days of hospitality doors are gone. However, we can still honor this age-old tradition by saying hello when we go for walks, hosting block parties to meet the neighbors, and smiling at people in the grocery store, even those you’d like to ram their cart for blocking the aisle.
If you have any ideas on ways to open those welcome doors, invite people inside, and learn all the amazing things that make them unique, reply in the comments. I’d love to hear them.
Yours in Health and History,
Book 6 in the Jennifer Cloud series is coming soon. If you haven’t read After 5 where Jennifer takes on the American Civil War, here’s the link. http://www.janetleighbooks.com/
Word by Word 
Hi, Janet! My first neighborhood was filled with small tudor homes. Almost all of them had small porches. We went from one to another to visit. I loved it! My house of 23 years doesn’t have one and faces a busy street. No neighbor time except across the driveway. Another home I visit has a big porch with wicker rockers. It is awesome.
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Hey, Janet. My old neighborhood did block parties. We mostly didn’t have front porches so that got us to interact. Where we live on the lake, our front door faces the lake and not the street. We don’t have anyone living across the street from us. It’s just a wooded area. After we moved to the lake, I started up the neighborhood coffees here. Everyone really enjoyed them. Every month we got to see someone else’s home. And eat goodies. A neat experience. However, we’ve cut those out during the pandemic. Hope to get them up again later this year or at the latest in 2023. Love your post. I love porches and being able to sit out and enjoy the outdoors. I shared. 🙂
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Having a coffee meet up sounds like a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi Janet, when I was growing up, we I lived in a hundred year old house and it had a wrap-around porch that went on three sides of the home. Our house today has a small porch that might hold one chair but we don’t use it. We put out a potted plant instead. 🙂
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I love those wrap around porches. My grandmother used to have one and we’d sit on her porch swing for hours. 🤗
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