Doors that belonged to the Chapin Mansion when it inhabited City Hall have been returned to the Niles History Center by a man who found them at a yard sale. (Leader photo/CRAIG HAUPERT)

Once thought lost forever, three of the original doors from the historic Chapin Mansion are now in the hands of those in charge of restoring the 19th century Niles home.

Carol Bainbridge, director of the Niles History Center, said the history center received the home’s two original front doors and what is believed to be the door to the west side entrance.

“These are doors I thought were gone,” she said. “We have some doors up in the ballroom storage area, but I knew they were not these doors. So to have these, it is outstanding. We don’t even have pictures of them, so we couldn’t have them replicated. It is very exciting.”

The doors were purchased, Bainbridge said, from Niles resident Mark Whitfield, who owns several downtown Niles properties.

Whitfield said he had been holding onto the doors for about 23 years, waiting for the Chapin Mansion to become a house museum. The Chapin Mansion served as Niles City Hall until City Hall moved to a new location in 2012. The Chapin Mansion became a museum home shortly thereafter.

“I was just waiting for the city to turn it (the home) into a museum,” Whitfield said. “They (the city) got rid of them (the doors) once, so I was afraid to let them have them for fear that they’d never get on the building. Now the doors are home.”

Whitfield said he got the doors from a seller in Dowagiac who had been keeping them in a barn. It is unclear how the seller in Dowagiac came by the doors.

“It was obvious where they were from because they had City Hall painted right on them, so I figured they needed to be saved,” he said. “I bought them and brought them home.”

While the doors aren’t in pristine shape, Bainbridge said they are in good enough condition to be restored.

The plan, she said, is to have them rehabbed and placed in their original spots.

That process could take between 1 1/2 and two years, depending on funding and the status of other projects that need to be done first, like the restoration of the home’s front porch.

“They have to be restored and all of the Kawneer (doors) have to come out, so it will be quite an undertaking,” Bainbridge said.

The Chapin Mansion was built in 1884 to serve as the home for successful businessman Henry Chapin and his wife, Ruby.

It was sold to the City of Niles in the 1930s and used as City Hall.