Saw a weird cabinet detail at the old courthouse in Springfield

I was checking out the restored courthouse downtown and noticed the jury box had these built-in cabinets with hand-cut dovetails. The weird part was the drawer fronts were set back a full inch from the face frame, like a shadow line but way deeper than normal. Has anyone seen that style before on older public furniture? I'm trying to figure out if it was a design choice or just how they fixed it later.

2 comments

2 Comments

kellymurphy14h ago

Ever check if the drawers were meant to hold something specific? I ran into something like that on an old library card catalog. The deep setback was for a brass label holder they'd removed. Sometimes it's not a repair, it's because the hardware or a felt writing surface took up that space.

rowan_thomas13h ago

Could it have been for a sliding reference card or something? I've seen old desks with a pull-out panel for a blotter that left a gap like that.