Doors to Nowhere

In the town where we live, I’ve noticed a weird phenomena:  there are many houses with second floor doors that lead seemingly nowhere.  Well, they lead outside, but that’s it – no stairwells, no balconies, no screened-in porches.  Just random doors on houses.  Perhaps there used to be something there, maybe a staircase, etc.  It would be one thing if there were only a few houses like these, but in my town alone, there are at least 10, one being next-door!  In a town this small, that is a lot.  Actually, they aren’t all second floor doors.  The church down the street has one that is about 3-4 feet off the ground – enough to see that it’s a door to nowhere, but not enough to be on the second floor.  I wonder what the purpose of these doors are and why there are so many?  Maybe it’s something to ask the library historian about, or maybe some of you fellow NW Ohioans who read this blog and have lived here longer than I can enlighten me – people didn’t waste doors in Chicago!