"cellar door"

[Joel S. Berson]

To me (NYC/Boston), the slanted door was a
"bulkhead door".  My one and only cellar door --
circa 1890 Queen Anne Victorian, Boston suburbs -- is vertical.

Joel

At 3/17/2014 02:02 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > And, yes, Wilson, back home in Meriden, Conn., a cellar door was the
> > slanting flap at the side of the house that covered the steps down to the
> > vertical door the opened into the cellar.
>
>Does anyone know the story behind the other
>names for those slanty hatchway doors to the
>basement?  I've heard with some regularity both
>"bulkhead door" and what I always processed as
>"bilko door".  I assumed that the latter was a
>reduction of the former influenced by the good
>(TV) sergeant of that name, but now checking
>Google I find that Bilco® door is actually a
>trade-name.  But which came first, the Bilco
>door or the (Sgt.) Bilko < Bulkhead door?

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