Out of square door and bowed

I have an original door on my front house from the 20's. It's got a lot of glass and is really nice. However, the door is slightly bowed (maybe 1/4"). The top doesn't shut all the way. Also, the door frame is out of square. On the latch side its 5/16" higher. This leaves a liittle triangle wedge of light coming in. PO had a little block of wood up there to cover it. Looked funny so I took it off not know what it was for.

Can I straighten the bow out of the door? How?

Should I put a little triangle wedge on the top of the door, or on the top of the door frame? Would like it to close nicely.

Thanks,
Jason

If the door itself is bowed, there is little you can do to fix that. You might consider having a new door made, incorprating the glass panel from the old door.

If you decided to just live with the door, then we have to determine if either the door or the jamb , or both, are out of square. It is certainly common for the jambs to be out of square. It is not uncommon to use little wedges on the door to account for this. The problem with this is you also have to start planing the edges and trimming the top or bottom. Pretty soon you have a trapezoidal shaped door, and are trying to match that to a trapezoidal jam.\


I would say that if the door is still pretty square, then remove the jamb completely and have a new jam put in square. Best to prehang the door in the new jamb for best fit.

check the hinges. make sure they havent walked from their original spot. also check for screws not fully set in the hinges. this would push the door towards latch side. if you have a gap (reveal) on top of latch side. install a 3" screw into top hinge, close to center of frame, sink it hard and it should pull the latch side up.
for the door not closing fully. i would try to push the bottom on latch side in and the top out.

Thanks for the tips. I'll fool with the hinges some and see what happen before I start cutting wedges.

Thanks

Jason