A Well Seasoned Story

Written by Chris Chiller

The second book in the Admiral Inn series introduces the discovery of a false wall in the basement directly below the house’s library, now used by June Faust as her study. Ramone gets curious and has June help him empty the bookcase directly above the false wall in the basement. Tapping on the back of the bookcase gives a hollow sound, and the pair search for the wall sconce or false book to pull and open the door. But the bookcase refuses to budge, remaining firmly in place. They give up for the evening and June leaves Ramone in her study to retire for the night.  

With all sorts of other activities at the Inn June and Ramone do not resume investigation of the bookcase until the next evening or chapter 24 if you prefer. Ramone had spent some time on the internet and had an idea.

“Ramone planted his feet and placed his left forearm under the shoulder-height shelf in front of him. He attempted to lift the structure, while his right hand pushed the side of the case to the right. It took all of his long leverage and considerable strength to overcome the stiff system of the bookcase’s lateral mechanism, willing it toward the corner. He grunted an explanation as he worked the whole unit over, “There should be…casters…under…the case…itself…and…if I can…just get them to…start rolling…” It shifted. Breathing hard, he backed up after moving it about three inches in behind the bookcases from the adjacent wall. “Tada!” He gestured to the tiny opening.

June ran her hand down the gap from top to bottom. She tried to see into the crack but saw nothing in the pitch black. “Wow! That proves that it is a secret door, but only if you’re a mouse.”

“But wait, there’s more.” Ramone repositioned his feet, pushed the case about two inches further, until the right corner noticeably kicked up with a metallic screech, and then dropped into some sort of shallow cup with a clank.

“Now it says here in the manual,” he leaned back to flash a smile, “oh, right, there isn’t one.” He stepped back and reached out with his left arm. “That I should be able to do…this.” With the slightest touch of his left palm to a shelf, the entire case, which would weigh easily two hundred pounds when fully filled with books, swung easily, albeit squealing, into a black hole, and laid back gently against the exterior wall of the study.”

Between the late 1800’s and the early twentieth century, secret doors and rooms were fashionable and popular. June learned in this book that the mansion was finished in 1915 making this discovery exciting but not shocking. Ramone’s lifting and pushing the bookcase inward, sliding it right and upward until it dropped into a cup, and then swinging the bookcase to the right in the space revealed suggests a modified pivot hinge. 

Pivot hinges date back to 1600 BC and were called out in the Old Testament as gold sockets on the doors to Solomon’s temple. The hinges on the doors in your house are probably mounted on the side opposite the doorknob. Pivot hinges would be drilled into the top and bottom of the door near the side with steel pegs that fit into cups at the  top and bottom. For doors that get a lot of use, modern pivot hinges include ball bearings to help them open a heavy door freely. The image below is a Rixon Brand 117 pivot hinge for interior doors, generally used in commercial applications. 

Concealed door pivot hinges were not generally commercially available during the 5 years when the Admiral mansion was built. Rixon bought a patent for their design in 1929 and began production soon after. 

The pivot that operates the door June and Ramone find would have been a product of a local blacksmith or machinist. The iron pivot would slide along carefully aligned top and bottom tracks to travel in, then to the right, and up until it drops into a cup to swing the bookcase back against the wall of the passage. This mechanism would require regular lubrication to work smoothly and subsequent mentions of the bookcase door imply that handy-woman Helene Jackley had taken care to make the mechanism work as well as it could.

Here is a simplified drawing of how a Pivot would work on a door. If it were applied to the back right-hand corner of a bookcase it would work as well. 

I will conclude this with a link to my personal favorite secret door in action from the movies: 

Put the Candle Back!