Here in central Delaware, at least from the eighteenth through early
twentieth centuries, vernacular houses featured paired attached benches
flanking the doorways. These benches generally defined the stoop. In town,
and on smaller houses, they were attached to the fronts. On very elegant
houses, they were located against the back door.

These benches were considered an essential element of any house. Brick
houses generally had sockets for the benches built into the brickwork,
indicating that the benches were integral to the house. The earliest dated
Delaware example is 1728, and the benches on my own front stoop are 1925
more or less. Generally they projected about four to six feet from the front
wall of the house, which means that four people could sit comfortably on the
stoop. The benches must have been important, because they were maintained
and replaced. My neighbor just rebuilt his front porch (and installed new
benches), finding evidence for two earlier sets of benches let into the
front wall.

So benches by the front doorway were important in Delaware folk
architecture, but there is no folklore, of which I am aware, relating to
them. They just were.

In Iceland, on the other hand, benches by the front doors of houses were
major household activity areas. Whenever the weather was hospitable,
Icelanders would sit on their benches and do handwork. Nineteenth-century
travel accounts and engravings illustrate the benches by doorways frequently
as activity areas.

So my question is in three parts:

1. What other areas of the world, besides Delaware and Iceland, have a
tradition of benches by the doorways?

2. Has anyone archaeologically identified any activity areas associated with
front doors that might suggest household activities moved outdoors in fine
weather?

3. Is there any literature on the subject?

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