The Fireplace: From Necessity to Luxury
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Bill Primavera
When I moved from an 18th century home in Yorktown Heights with fireplaces in every room but the kitchen and bathroom to a new condominium in Trump Park, I was disappointed to find that the top-floor unit I wanted to buy came without a fireplace, while other units in the building offered this feature.
No problem, I thought, I’ll install a fireplace of my own, which I purchased from Fire Glow Distributors in Mahopac.
It is an electric unit, actually, but presents a very realistic effect of a flickering flame when turned on, offering heat if desired, at the same time. Sure, it’s phony as Aunt Minnie’s teeth, as my eighth-grade teacher used to say, but it produces the desired results – a warm gathering place for the family, as well as visitors, where we can all focus, as though hypnotized on the display.
The fireplace was a necessity in early America. As the hub of the house, a burning hearth provided heat, housed fires for cooking and baking and served as the nucleus of family gatherings. In the 1600s and early 1700s, the typical fireplace was a walk-in: a wide, deep, open recess, generally with only the briefest semblance of a mantel, or no mantel at all.
In New England and the Mid-Atlantic, colonial homes had central chimneys with multiple flues so that fires could be lit in two or more rooms on each floor. The central mass of stone or brick also tended to retain heat, keeping the house warmer overall.
In the South, fireplaces were placed at the far ends of the house to reduce heat buildup, keeping the house cooler in summer. True mantels were rare before the 1800s.
By the second quarter of the 18th century, the fireplace had become the centerpiece of the main gathering room.
Full-relief fireplaces with mantels and surrounds finally emerged after the Revolutionary War.
By the mid-1800s, as the country industrialized and started to become more urban, households were burning coal rather than wood. Grates were smaller and held lumps of coal in iron baskets.
As the Victorian age progressed, fireplaces became more ornate, with overmantels and columns.
However, there would soon be a backlash. In the early 20th century, fireplaces and mantels became much simpler, with those in Colonial Revival houses harking back to the motifs popularized in the late 1700s and early 1800s. They sometimes liberally mixed and matched elements such as 1750s Georgian moldings with 1840s Greek Revival fluting. Surrounds were simply finished with brick or stone.
The back-to-nature movement spearheaded by Teddy Roosevelt and others had an effect, too. Many homes were treated to full-on fireplaces built of river rock or stone. This rustic style spilled over into the burgeoning Arts & Crafts movement.
Whether highly ornate or simple and rustic, a fireplace continues to be a source of warmth and comfort in the home, still one of the most desired elements in any home today.
Bill Primavera is a realtor associated with William Raveis Real Estate and founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc. (www.PrimaveraPR.com). To engage the services of The Home Guru to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
Examiner Media – Keeping you informed with professionally-reported local news, features, and sports coverage.
