A Dutch door (American English), or stable door (British English), or half door (Hiberno English), is a door divided horizontally in such a fashion that the bottom half may remain shut while the top half opens. The initial purpose of this door was to keep animals out of farmhouses, or keep children inside, while allowing light and air to filter through the open top. This type of door was common in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century and appear in Dutch paintings of the period. They were also commonly found in the Dutch cultural areas of New York and New Jersey before the American Revolution.
Dutch doors are often used in North-American passenger train cars to allow crewmen to interact safely with other employees not aboard their trains (or simply to visually inspect their own train) without risking falling from the train. Recent operating rules changes in Canada have rendered the Dutch-doors obsolete, although legacy rolling stock retains the doors.
The term is also applied to the modified rear doors on selected GMC Safaris and Chevrolet Astros that have a flip up rear window and two small half-size doors underneath, although the term barn doors is sometimes used for these doors as well.
Famous quotes containing the words dutch and/or door:
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“It’s true, as Marya Mannes says: “No one believes [a woman’s] time to be sacred. A man at his desk in a room with a closed door is a man at work. A woman at a desk in any room is available.””
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)