#Transom September 2

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August 2026 several of us are going to take on the 30-Day Architectural Coach4aday Challenge each day, we will define an architectural term and provide examples of where it is located. This challenge will let observation, travel, history, and photography all intersect. For Day 2 it is TRANSOM.

When you live in a home built in 1910, you have architectural features that aren’t commonly found in modern houses. One of those features is a transom window. We have them above seven different doors in our home, as well as above our front entryway.

Here is an example of one of the interior windows we have in our home.

30-Day Architectural Challenge Guidelines

If you have ever watched Seinfeld, you know that George Constanza always wanted to pretend to be an architect.

Well, this month’s challenge let’s all of us that are not architects learn a little more about their language. To do that we have a simple challenge.

Every day we’ll learn one architectural term. Your challenge is to find an example—preferably one you’ve actually seen—and share a photograph, location and brief explanation.

Day 2-Transom Windows

Visitors to our house have often commented on the transom windows. We often have to give them a history lesson on their purpose based on the fact that air conditioning was not a thing in 1910.

Our transom windows over interior doors were primarily functional rather than decorative. They served several practical purposes:

• Ventilation: Before widespread air conditioning, transoms could be opened to allow air to circulate between rooms, even when the doors were closed.
• Natural light: They allowed daylight from a brighter room or hallway to reach an interior room that might have had limited windows.
• Privacy: A transom provided light and airflow without requiring the door itself to remain open.
• Temperature control: Opening a transom could help move warm air upward and encourage circulation between rooms.
• Light for dark hallways: Transoms were particularly useful for bringing daylight into interior corridors and rooms away from exterior walls.

When we purchased the house in 1998, the transoms had been sealed shut so they could no longer open, and the glass had been painted over. With plenty of elbow grease and patience, my wife managed to scrape the paint off the glass and bring those old transoms back to life.