The Historic District

Hi everyone, I bought a place in North Dakota and notice that the windows on the north and west sides have these hinge-like devices embedded in the brickwork. I assume these are for shutters. Does anyone know anything about them?
ceg

Shutters would make scence on the bald ass prairie. The winter winds blow generally blow from the N/NW. oh, and welcome to the Disrict, tell us more about your home. We here are a nosy lot when it comes to old homes.

I was unsuccessful in uploading the picture. sorry.

Saw the pic, yes it looks as though the devices are in fact for shutters. I would imagine a pin-like hinge piece on the shutter that would slide into the rings on the facade. Maybe the pic did not include it, but I did not see any hold backs for the shutters when open. If you decide to add shutters, something would be necessary to keep them open.

Edit to add: Possibly there were not any hold backs if the rings were meant to hold one-piece 'storm' shutters that were slid into the four rings at once and somehow secured in place from inside?

Welcome to the District and as Gothichome said...pics, pics, pics!!

I am working on the "Hotel Berry" in Velva ND. You can search on line to find old pictures. However, most of the stuff has been auctioned off. The metal ceilings, and woodwork are intact. The house was built before electricity and water came to town.
My intention is to convert this into a Bed and Breakfast, possibly reopening the restaurant on the first floor. Part of the basement will become a museum.
In trying to determine the future heating system of the hotel, I discovered and am working with heatinghelp. The link is http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion ... t-water/p1 In summery, I have decided to keep the one pipe steam heat. However, I want to add an electric boiler that will work on three phase storage which is cheaper than off-peak.
We have discussed the obvious need of insulating the house and a number of other subjects that all tie together in the heating package.
A picture of the window hinges n question are on page on of the thread.

ceg.

That is like no shutter hinges I have ever seen. It is heavy enough to hold iron bars or even a scaffold platform of some kind. These are on every window? The amount of offset on these things would cause the shutter to be very far from the window when open. Wide strips of brickwork would be exposed.
It is fuzzy, but there seem to be normal shutter hinges in the normal position on the window frame.
You say this was a hotel? Could these have been the anchorage for fire-escapes?

maybe they held some wrought iron security bars? some hotels in Europe have them so you can lock your room from anyone climbing in but leave the window open enough to ventilate.

They remind me very much of the shutter hinges used on the old commercial wharves and buildings in Portland Maine. They used to hold very heavy shutters that were more like doors.


zoom in on the top left of this picture

http://mainetoday.com/wp-content/upload ... 24x602.jpg


Any chance your place had a commercial use in the past?

@Mick_VT: perfect pic of the Old Port and great example. OP states this was a hotel...

i'm trying to imagine an offset pintle that would allow solid heavy shutters to properly open and close...the pintle would have to extend beyond the shutter itself...it appears that all the windows have these hinges...some windows appear to be covered (shutters in place?) but enlarging the photo for a better look just presents as blurry...

I worked on windows--really they were shutters with a 1/4" thick piece of glass...the shutters were three layers thick of oak...the interior and exterior wood was vertical and the middle was set at a diagonal...each shutter had a large bronze pintle that sat in a large bronze 'hinge' that was set in granite... http://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M40da ... 0&pid=15.1 the small shutters weighed about 50 pounds and the larger ones about 75 pounds...these are the stairs I climbed a million times: https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2466/37 ... 6ba7_b.jpg

not sure why this type of building would require such heavy duty shutters...

...jade