When the Merchants Exchange first opened, the doors were painted green. As far as anyone knows it had nothing to do with the entrance being to a bank, but it became the symbol of that institution and to some extent of Dosart Village itself. Any farmer in the upper county needing a loan until his crops were harvested had to make a trip to Dosart to “walk through the green door.” The original owners and board members were all in the shipping business and business was good as long as business was good with the colonies. The ME, as it came to be called, was successful through the industrial revolution both politically as well financially. Over the centuries a dozen members of parliament came from the ME and two became prime minister. It was one of those MPs from the ME that is linked with the closing of the green door for nearly a century. Horace Woolsey was 22 years old, the youngest member of Parliament, when he was killed by at the entrance as he left work. The assailant, a political rival, struck with such a blow his sword left a scar on the door’s stone facing after it passed through Woolsey. The door became a shrine to him as he gained popularity in death and the subject of songs and fictionalized articles and one very popular play, “Puerta Verde.” The fame faded and the doorway was again used, but the blade’s nick is still visible.
All the locals will point it out.