The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship

by Henry Petroski, Catherine Petroski (Photographer)

An architectural whodunit that unlocks the secrets of a hand-built home. When Henry Petroski and his wife Catherine bought a charming but modest six-decades-old island retreat in coastal Maine, Petroski couldn’t help but admire its unusual construction. An eminent expert on engineering, history, and design, he began wondering about the place’s origins and evolution: Who built it, and how? What needs, materials, technologies, historical developments, and laws shaped it? How had it fared through the years with its various inhabitants? Sleuthing around dimly lit closets, knotty-pine wall panels, and even a secret passage―but never removing so much as a nail―Petroski zooms in on the details but also steps back to examine the structure in the context of its time and place. Catherine Petroski’s beautiful photographs capture the clues and the atmosphere. A vibrant cast of neighbors and past residents―most notably the house’s masterful creator, an engineer-turned-“folk architect”―become key characters in the story. As the mystery unfolds, revealing an extraordinary house and its environs, this ode to loving design will leave readers enchanted and inspired. 80 photographs

Genres: Nonfiction, Architecture, Engineering

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2014

About the author

Henry Petroski was an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he was also a prolific author.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this much more than I did, but I wasn't impressed. I'm a carpenter, and I tend to enjoy books about construction, but this was an exception. I found the writing wooden and pedantic, and the author himself came across as someone who only had a detached and anthropological interest in people who work with their hands. Maybe I'm wrong, and he may be perfectly pleasant in person, but he struck me as a nightmare client. If you find this topic interesting, I wouldn't recommend this particular book. I strongly recommend House by Tracy Kidder, or A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder by Michael Pollan.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, my assumption from the title that this book was going to be about sixteen handmade doors in a house. It is not.

Imagine instead a college professor who seems to know everything there is to know about their fairly obscure research area. Who gets so excited lecturing on it that class never ends on time, even on a Friday afternoon. Where you can't even go to office hours for help, since you can't afford to lose half a day on details that won't even be on the test. Now imagine you're at that professor's house for a Christmas party, they've had a little too much of the eggnog, and you've just learned they have an almost equal passion for the house you're standing in right now. Better top off your drink, since it's going to be a long night.

Some of what you'll listen to is the background information on the house. And it's extensive. The family histories of the previous owners, the various neighbors, what was formerly on the land, information on the local economy, and details on the river. Soon, after learning about the procurement of a new crane and a change in shipbuilding techniques, you're looking at pictures of the destroyers that sail down the river after they're built.

Then you'll get to the details of the house. Trying to understand why there's an extra pocket in the foundation for an unused beam. Trying to figure out why the roof pitch of the garage and house are slightly different. Trying to figure out if plans were used, or a model, or if things were just figured out as the builder went. Never able to know for sure, but always trying to get into the mind of the builder.

Throughout your evening, you get some extra tidbits. Some are interesting, like how the professor came to choose the name for the road the house sits on, some are normal stories you might hear at a party, like how an animal got stuck in the house that one time, and some are difficult to stay awake through, like a half page explanation of how the game Clue works.

At the end of the night, you've learned a little bit about applying engineering principles to deconstructing how a house was built, you've gotten to see your professor as a real person and not just an academic who knows everything about a certain writing implement, and you feel like you know the builder of that house better than you know your classmates, even though he's long since passed away.

It's not the book I thought I was buying, but I'm not sad to have bought it.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this a higher rating than I'd like to because it is lovingly and well written; it's a love story of sorts about a house. If i were a carpenter or familiar with the area or really into houses, it would be a different experience. there were parts of the book that pulled me in, the details about the house's construction, and then parts where I fell out again, like the history of the builder and of the area itself.

It did inspire me in a way though. I can't imagine building something so perfect - not in an effort to create art, but simply as an expression of my innate craft - that a total stranger, years down the line, would become obsessed with it. I like that about this book.

[Joann Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating story of the surmised construction of the author’s 60 year old summer home in coastal Maine as gleaned through uncovered details. It’s interspersed with an anecdotal history and geography of the area. We have lived in a nearby town for the past seven years which increased my interest. I can attest to the accuracy of the history and the experience of living here.
Petroski’s admiration of the carpenter’s skill is respectfully conveyed through his writing and augmented by photos by his wife, photographer, Catherine Petroski. I thoroughly and geekily enjoyed the read but it’s unlikely to appeal to a wide audience.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most pages of this book are dedicated to a painstaking description of a residence located on a river in Maine. I expected the subject building to be a masterpiece of design, construction, and craftsmanship, but no. It's a simple building that was built by an amateur builder. So why does it deserve an entire book? I have the same question.

The best sections were those that had nothing to do with the house but instead described history and life in Midcoast Maine. The author is a good writer, but this tome is a bore to be avoided.

[Blythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic was interesting to me and I liked the interweaving with history of the area. However, though they look like pleasant enough people in the photo, I could not warm up to the authors themselves. They came off as a bit snobbish and I worried about the book being read by the people, worker and renovation decision-makers about whom they made less than gracious inferences.

[Tommy Carbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting memoir from Arrowsic, Maine. The author, Henry Petroski is well known in the engineering world and has published numerous books. In this memoir he takes us through the history of the home he purchased on the Kennebec River. Beyond that, he includes tidbits of local history and nuances he, as a person from 'away,' learned about Maine.

[Cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some folks bought a house, and enjoyed the house so much they did a lot of research about the guy who built it; then wrote a book about it.
It's the wrong amount of detail- not enough closeup photos or detailed discussion for someone who wants to recreate it, but TOO MUCH for someone who is only vaguely interested.

[Bob Shadel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always enjoy detailed run through of buildings, especially personal homes. Like Tracy Kidder's House, this book has a lot of personal details about the owners as well as many details about the construction of this house, and a fair bit of local/regional history.

[CR · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book drags but the professor's attention to detail is definitely an eye-opener for those of us who haven't bought a Maine getaway or taken to woodworking. I especially appreciated the history of the Craftsman's Guild competition (compare with the high school math competitions that the Austro-Hungarian physicists of the 20th century enjoyed).

I wonder if Petroski's other books drag as much – I appreciate that woodworking/engineering might be challenging subjects to enliven but I imagine they're being underserved if Petroski really is the biggest writer in the field as seems to be the case. Compare with the histories of telecommunications, computer science – and that's a field that's been around for decades not centuries. A bit more consideration for form and this could have been a knockout book worth recommending to anyone buying an old house (or restoring one). As is, this is not much more than a rambling journal of a retired professor, albeit a knowledgable and jovial one.

[Du · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very dry and unmotivating. I liked the idea of the book and the story it wanted to tell. I also liked the remote, but not really location. It is near where some relatives of mine live, and I could picture the areas in Bath and its surroundings. That helped get the second star.

It suffers from the feeling of privilege "listen old chap, let me tell you about my summer home, and the plebeians that live in the area. You'll be shocked at how they live." No thanks, I don't need a lecture from an education elite to tell me how the house he bought was built, or so he thinks.

I wish the pictures had been more illustrative. Instead they felt like a way to get the author's wife involved. They don't really add to the story. They are too close, and too disjointed from the text around them.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Petroski's books are always interesting and answer lots of questions that the reader didn't even realize that he/she had until encountering the story of how the books' subjects were developed and made. This book is less universal than the ones on pencils and toothpicks, but is charmingly illustrated with photos taken by Mr. Petroski's wife.

[A W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Other reviewer said, "this book drags," and "dry," and "pedantic," and I agree. I really wanted to like this book, because I'm also prone to obsess a little over unique and telling details. But this is just too much. It would have made a fine feature article in a woodworking magazine, but a full-length book is just too much.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Petroski is one of my favorite writers about technology, and here he applies his engineering skills to bear on a summer home his wife and he own in Maine. Along the way, you'll get good doses of Maine history, shipbuilding, quirky and helpful neighbors, and a biography of the home's original builder told in the context of clues provided by the construction.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite an engaging book. At times Petroski stretched my patience as a reader in his detailed examination of the summer home. However, the effort was well worth it as it is one of those books that leave you in a reflective mood.

[Megowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good background about Maine, interesting " how to build a house".

[Francie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved the concept- an ode to craftsmanship as it pertains to the author's summer home- but way too much detail. A shorter version would have been nice. Sad to say, I quit halfway through.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Pretty thin stuff, about the author's vacation home in coastal northern Maine.