Light On Dark Water

Anybody know what this is?

My wife recently took the job of archivist for the Archdiocese of Mobile. In that capacity she's been helping some people do research for a book about the history of Portier House, a building which was the residence of the first bishop of Mobile in the early 19th century. She found, at the Library of Congress' web site, this WPA photograph of the front door of the house as it looked in 1935.

The question is: what is that vaguely leaf-shaped thing affixed to the left side of the entrance? It's all wrong for an ornament, yet it doesn't have any obvious function, either. Any ideas?

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 More info about Portier House  here, if you're interested.

Maclin Horton

4 responses to “Anybody know what this is?”

  1. Anne-Marie

    The shape reminds me of a bishop’s coat of arms. Maybe at one time it was painted with the arms of the first bishop, to mark the fact that he had lived there?
    Maybe it used to hold a doorknocker in the shape of dove with outspread wings.
    No, no, it’s a radiolarian! Probably an advance party sent by the planaria invaders.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolaria

    Reply
  2. Mac

    Wow, this sounds like the beginning of an X-Files episode: Mulder and Scully discovering evidence of aliens in old photographs predating Roswell etc. Maybe the radiolarians and planarians were actually at war with each other, and the planarians won because they’re 550 feet tall, as opposed to the size of a door knocker.
    I thought about the possibility that it’s a door knocker, but it seems to be in the wrong place. Bishop’s coat of arms sounds like a possibility.

    Reply
  3. Paul

    My first thought was “something you can rap the head of your cane on without damaging the woodwork”, but somehow a radiolarian seems less silly.

    Reply
  4. Mac

    I don’t know, that doesn’t sound so far-fetched to me, Paul.

    Reply

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