January, 1907 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



The Question of the Fireplace 



By John A. Gade 



O BUILD a fireplace correctly you must 

 "know how." You will not stumble into suc- 

 cess without some previous knowledge. As 

 the "motif" of an opera or a single high-light 

 of a picture may be the soul of the composi- 

 tion, so the fireplace and mantel are the 



keynote of the design of the room and its most important 

 features. 



A hundred years ago we bricked up the broad, generous 

 chimneys of the earlier pre-revolutionary period, left a hole 

 for a stove-pipe, and then enjoyed the novel luxury of the 



1 — Of the Best Louis XVI Design 



stove. The age of grates and blowers followed, but these 

 also quickly passed, leaving merely a recollection of their 

 stinginess. They were never intended as a genuine source of 

 heat, or drowsy, contemplative happiness. At their best they 

 only "took the chill" off the room, and had to be supple- 

 mented by the register. 



To-day, and especially in our country houses, we are once 

 more realizing the artistic value of a good fireplace. What 

 can compare to the comfort of the open hearth in your bed- 

 room, when you return to it from your tub on a cold winter 

 morning? Or in the evening, when you are tired after a 

 day's hard work or exercise, what can come up to stretching 

 your legs on the hearth, sitting with no other light than the 

 glow of the logs and listening to the cheerful crackle and 

 incessant sputter. An apathy and lazy contentment steals 

 over you. Whether you poke the embers as the poorest ama- 



teur or pile up the logs and kindling as the most expert fire- 

 builder (and that is high art!) — its mellowing influence is 

 the same. 



In attempting to build a fireplace the first problems which 

 face you are those of proportion, construction, and materials. 

 The design of the fireplace itself, the opening, the linings, the 

 facings, and the mantel, are naturally all vital considerations. 

 I'he height and width and depth of the opening should all, 

 if the fire is to draw well, be in certain proportions one to 

 the other as well as to the lines of the throat and the area of 

 the flue. 



In fireplaces where the flues are expected to run three 

 stories or more, the flue area at the top of the smoke cham- 

 ber should be one-twelfth the area of the fireplace opening, if 

 two stories, one-tenth, and single story one-eighth. These 

 proportions will burn wood fires. In the case of hard coal 

 fires, the flue areas may be reduced 30 per cent. (From this 

 may be seen the difficulty of making the coal grate fireplaces 

 of the old New York brown stone houses meet the require- 

 ments of the fireplaces transformed for burning wooden 

 logs.) The total throat area should have one and one-half 



2 — in Harmony With Its Surrounding Panel-work 



times the flue area. No open fireplace should be built with- 

 out a backdraft shelf, so arranged that it extends far enough 

 out to prevent rain coming down the chimney and rusting the 

 iron work. A liberal smoke chamber and the backdraft shelf 

 are essential. The front edge of the fireplace opening should 

 be made as thin as possible. The depth of the fireplace 

 should be at least one-half its width. 



