New doors made by Kendall business going in County Clerks’ Building

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Karl Driesel, owner of Orleans Millworks in Kendall, checks a door that he made to replace one on the County Clerks’ Building.

Driesel teamed with the Orleans County Department of Public Works to put in two new doors on one of the entrances of the historic building from 1888. Driesel is doing the two doors today that used to lead up to the Orleans County Legislature. The Legislature has since moved to a new addition at the County Office Building on Route 31. That space on the top floor is now used for the public defender’s office.

Tomorrow, Dreisel expects he will work with the DPW to swap out the doors for the county clerk’s office on the other end of the building facing Main Street.

Karl Driesel and DPW senior building maintenance employees Dan Cooke, left, and Bert Mathes carry one of the new doors to set it in place. The door weighs about 200 pounds.

The door in 112 inches high (just over nine feet) and 29 inches wide. It is 2 1/8 inches thick, which Driesel said is “extremely thick” for a door.

Driesel and the DPW were able to use the old hardware to attach the new doors.

With the old the doors the bottom parts were falling apart and were no longer weather tight, Mathes said.

Driesel makes moldings, panels and components for doors that he usually sends off to other companies to put the final product together.

He welcomed the chance to do the full project for the doors at the Clerks’ Building.

“This is an opportunity that is close to home and it looked like a fun project,” he said.

Driesel made the doors out of quartersawn mahogany. They replace wooden doors that appear to be Douglas fir in the center with oak veneer for the rest. Driesel said they likely weren’t the original doors. He said the new doors should hold up for many decades to come.

The county DPW stained the interior side and painted the exterior white.

Karl Driesel and the DPW employees, Dan Cooke and Bert Mathes, attach the new doors. The doors had to be taken off for some slight trimming so they would close perfectly.