Opening the door to one of Vancouver’s most unusual collections, and collectors

To most people, a doorknob is a doorknob.

Not to Robert McNutt. To him, a doorknob can be a work of art, a symbol of a great building, even a reflection of great wealth.

McNutt has a couple of doorknobs from the Vanderbilts, one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in America’s gilded age in the late 1800s.

Cornelius Vanderbilt built the biggest house in the history of New York at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 57th Street in Manhattan in 1883. It was demolished and replaced by the Bengdorf Goodman department store in 1926.

McNutt has a doorknob with the ‘CV’ monogram, which he believes is from the mansion. He also has a doorknob with the monogram ‘AV’, for Cornelius’s wife, Alice Vanderbilt, which is supposed to be from the stables for the mansion.