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From same source:
room. It was an old house at Albany—a large, square, double house, with a notice of sale in the windows of the parlour. There were two entrances, one of which had long been out of use, but had never been removed. They were exactly alike—large white doors, with an arched frame and wide sidelights, perched upon little “stoops” of red stone,
I have heard the word, but never the definition:
stoop 2
n.
5Du stoep, akin to Ger stufe: for IE base see STEP6 a small porch or platform with steps and, orig., seats, at the door of a house
The etymology says it is from Dutch, and Albany had Dutch
settlers, and so Dutch customs.The idea of a shelter from the rain, and seats while waiting for doorbell to be answered is commendable.
Reminds me of an amentity of a hundred years ago, not seen now. The porte-cochere, a roof attached to house over entrance extending over driveway large enough for occupants of vehicle to get out without getting wet.
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not seen now. The porte-cochere, a roof attached to house over entrance extending over driveway large enough for occupants of vehicle to get out without getting wet.
ya mean a car-port? http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=101014see dxb, three from the end... 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Dear etaoin: I've never seen a carport attached to a house entrance. Probably against building code. Remember the song about "The Railroad Runs Through the Center of the House"
Instead of a dog trot, a two car garage rig;ht through the middle of the house. Or a garrison type house with overhang wide enough to shelter a car.
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Carpal Tunnel
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well, I did find this: http://www.spanline.com.au/images/carport.jpgbut I've realized that you're talking about one of those cool porch type things that the driveway runs through. always wanted a house with one of those...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Stoop in this sense always seemed to me to be an American word. Is the object if not the word restricted to certain parts of the US then?
Many houses where I grew up had a porch, a small covered area in front of the front door which was sheltered from the rain where you could wait to be let in. More and more they seem to be being enclosed with an extra door as a barrier against the cold and used as storage area for coats and stuff..
Bingley
Bingley
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enclosed with an extra door as a barrier against the cold and used as storage area for coats and stuff.
AKA mud room.
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a stoop -- a set of stairs, with a small landing in front of the door, with or with out a small covering- is a very NY thing.. everyone calls the front steps a stoop..and signs on building (from my childhood) said no loitering on the stoop
another dutch style that is still common in NY is a 'airlock' entry.
you enter the house, (brownstone/or apartmentment building) and then in that entry way, are the door bells and mail boxes.. you wait in that room, to be buzzed in (or take out your key and let your self in, if you live there).. the outer door is closed, before the innner door gets opened, and drafts do not enter the house.. i am so used to them, i think them normal, and i am always surprised not to find one..
my new apartment building is designed that way- front door always unlocked, lead you to entry way that has another set of doors. now days, there security guard sits there, and every one gets announced, before being buzzed into the second set of locked doors.
other dutch words and influences abound in NY- like Kill (a marsh) or Meer (a small lake-there is one in central park) or Flushing (a town on netherlands) NYC, and the hudson valley up to albany is littered with dutch place names, and dutch terms dating back to the dutch influence in NY-- for instance, we don't have a common or a remains of a common in the old down town area-- we have 'bowling green'-- since that is what the dutch had...
Old mansions in NY do have semi circlular drives, and portico's, (VanDerBuilt mansion, in vanderbuilt park, for example)
Even Washington Irving -in his house in Sunnyside, (now the town of Irvington, NY, about 40 mile north of Manhattan, right on the banks of the hudson.) had one an entry way like that.. but it wasn't the offical front door.. the front door was more elegant, and is covered with wisteria.
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One custom in New England and eastern Canada now happily
obsolete was the front room used only for weddings and funerals. As an extreme esample, I had a couple neighbors from Prince Edward Island who returned there when the husvand retired. I visited them there, and was entertained in their front room. When I got back to MA, and mentioned it
it to my ward secretary, who was from PEI, her jaw dropped, and she exclaimed: "I've known her twenty years and have never been invited into her front room!"
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Back to porte-cochiere:
There's one on the Dooley House here in Richmond. The porte-cochiere on this grand, but spooky to me, old house is actually over the back entrance to the house. There are rooms immediately to the right and left of the entrance hall where guests of times gone by could freshen up from their buggy rides up to the house. I do wonder whether that back entrance was used for inclement weather arrivals only.
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old hand
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old hand
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front room used only for weddings and funerals
Many of the older houses in St. John's are built with a front room, and, correspondingly, no "living room" as we know it. My supervisor's house is one such house and they find it very frustrating not to have a living room. (The front room is used as his wife's studio.) Apparently in "old" Newfoundland it was common to have a couch in the kitchen and do all your visiting in there - hence, the concept of the East Coast "kitchen party".
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Re:Apparently in "old" Newfoundland it was common to have a couch in the kitchen and do all your visiting in there
Not just in Newfoundland.. most colleges have 'common rooms' that are lounge and eating rooms.. similar to the common room of my nana's house -- her good parlor was the back parlor (it got more sun, and overlooked a garden, not a common alleyway.)
fancy front parlors were still maintained in my childhood-- and still exist (ethnically) today. many, many italians (cousins, friends, etc) have a formal living room, and a second, room "family room" in the basement-- with a second kitchen.. and getting invited into the living room is a rare treat..
one of my mothers cousins was married to italian, and had such a formal room- it annoyed my mother no end that she was not invited into it, but was greeted at the door, shown the room, and invited to the basement!
(they must have 'opened' it by the time i was a teen, since i remember being in the basement room, and playing rock'n roll with out any parental complaints..)
and another dutch place name.. New Dorp-- a neighborhood in Brooklyn..(and i for got Harlem, named for a city in Holland-- (yes, the state of Holland, in the country of the Netherlands..) Flatbush too, i think is dutch (bush as in bushlands, or flat dry expanses..)
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When I was a boy, the whole family congregated in the kitchen, much to my mother's annoyance because be got in her way when she was cooking. I have since realized that even though the house had central heating, there was no provision for moistening air, and the living room just was not as comfortable as the kitchen, where there was always a teakettle or something else steaming on the stove.
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