Doors

[Philip Scott]

I am a historian who specializes in the Pre-Civil War South. Several
years ago I examined an old convent in Louisiana that was built in the
Spanish colonial period of Louisiana. I was struck by the fact that all
the door knobs in the original part of the building are knee high. There
have been many humorous reasons offered - the original nuns were all
dwarfs, the nuns walked on their knees for sorrow of their sins, the
knobs were low so the orphans could open the doors (this makes no since
because doors to rooms where the orphans should not have gone had low
knobs as well). I have found one other old convent in Canada of the same
religious order with doors like this. The Mother General in Europe tells
me she has no idea why this was done and the nuns of the present day are
at a loss to explain this. Do any of you have any serious ideas?