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The six panel door emerged from the classical tradition in British architecture and took root in the American colonies. For all the claims of Christian associations, it's rooted in pagan Greco-Roman architecture and the revival of classical architecture in Europe starting in the 17th century.
Why the six panel door has remained so popular is likely because it is a pleasant way of breaking up what would otherwise be a flat and dull surface. It has come to work well in a variety of housing styles. It is, I believe, also more durable than a solid surface door, which would be more prone to warping (especially in higher humidity environments like much of the US).
No, the reason you make paneled construction is to maximize the surface area covered by the amount of available wood, and make a construction that's not prone to splitting, warping, etc. You don't need large logs to make stiles and rails. The joints of the stiles and rails allow shrinkage and swelling to occur without warping or the corner joints separating. Because the panels are also relatively narrow, you don't need big logs to make them, and because they're fairly thin, you can make more panels out of a given log. Tapering the edges down to fit in a thin slot in the frame means the width and height of the panel don't have to be precisely matched to the size of the opening (and that's going to be constantly changing as the wood shrinks and swells with the seasons). Stiles and rails can be joined without adhesives or nails, by drawboring holes in the joints and driving wooden pins. (You use dry pins into less-seasoned wood so the frame elements shrink around the pins.)
If you make a door out of planks laid edge to edge, you have gaps open up as soon as the planks shrink. If you put cross members, then the planks will shrink in width more than the cross members shrink in length, and the planks will split lengthwise. You could make tongue and groove joints to mate the planks but making tongue and groove joints is more troublesome than using a panel-raising plane to make the edges of panels, I think. I am sure you could come up with some way to fasten planks to cross members without using nails, but I am at a loss what it would be.
Finally, a paneled door is lighter and thinner than a plank door. Also it fits tightly to a door jamb whereas a plank door with cross members you have to put the cross members on the opening side, and those cross planks may interfere with the trim on the opening side. Of course you can make a two layer plank door, but that's going to be very heavy.
Moving to more modern construction you have the flat hollow core door which is cheap and resonates, or the flat solid core door which is heavy as all heck and requires considerable capital equipment to do the lamination of the skins to the core. Of course nowadays a lot of "paneled doors" are just molded pulp pressed into the shape of a paneled door as an imitation, which is cheesy as all get-out; but for very many architectural styles the paneled door is expected along with the styles of moldings, windows, etc., etc., etc., so for that interior style putting flat hollow core doors would look cheap when mated with large heavy moldings.
In the 50s, 60s and somewhat into the 70s, the door of choice were those cheap luan (or "lauan") type doors. Maybe folks have forgotten them? They are horrid. They were used for front doors as well as interior doors.
Six panel doors became the replacement from those awful luan doors. In the 70s and into the 80s - every home I bought had the luan and so I replaced them all with the much classier looking 6 panel doors.
Yes, there are hollow 6 panel doors available but it doesn't mean the solid 6 panels are not out there and being used.
If you don't remember those doors, here's a photo . . . and there is a paneled door beside one of the luan doors in the picture - easy to see which looks better. And I would mention - that paneled door looks like one of the cheaper ones, but it still looks classier than the luan.
The luan/lauan doors are still available today. If you can find one that is solid rather than just veneer over a cheap hollow construction, they are often the best choice for a mid-century modern home restoration.
I lived in a 1960s era house with ugly, flat, hollow core luaun “mahogany” doors. House was “colonial” in style, but had those ugly doors. My parents built a house in the 1950s and put in flat solid birch faced doors. They matched the style of the house very well. My present house has doors that are totally smooth, with two raised panels. The top panel is curved. But the doors were pressed or stamped. They weren’t built as doors used to be.
I used to think it would be fun to find random old doors and replace them in a house, but I never did that.
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