KEEPING WARM 
tremendous. Harriet Beecher Stowe de- 
scribes a rural house as follows: 
The one great central kitchen fire was the 
only means of warming known in the house, 
and duly at nine o'clock every night, that 
was raked up and all the family took their 
way to bed chambers that never knew a fire, 
where the very sheets and blankets seemed 
so full of stinging cold air that they made 
one's fingers tingle: and where, after getting 
into bed there was a prolonged shiver, until 
one's own internal heat-giving economy had 
warmed through the whole icy mass. Deli- 
cate people had these horrors ameliorated 
by the means of a brass warming-pan — an 
article of high respect in those days. 
In many homes, heated bricks or 
stones were used as foot warmers in 
beds, but the real luxury was a bed 
warmed by a long-handled metal warm- 
ing pan filled with hot coals and then 
rubbed smartly between the cold sheets, 
thereby imparting a freshly ironed sur- 
face to the linen and a bit of temporary 
warmth to the entire bed. Some staunch 
New Englanders regarded the use of 
warming pans as a luxury to be reserved 
for the sick or the elderly, but for those 
who yielded, the warmth was real. 
Faced with the difficulty and danger 
of heating a large number of rooms 
during the coldest months, many people 
reduced their actual living space within 
their homes, closing off unneeded rooms 
and rearranging furnishings. Jonathan 
Sayward of York. Maine, wrote in his 
diary of the seasonal ritual of taking 
down and setting up his high post bed in 
different chambers. During the ex- 
tended absence of her husband during 
one Vermont winter, Mrs. Royall Tyler 
moved her bed into the north parlor, her 
two younger children slept in the bed 
with her, and the older ones slept in a 
trundle bed in the same room. Anne 
Lyman wrote to a friend, "Our house is 
warm enough, that part which we use.” 
Household furnishings of this era were 
usually light and, with the exception of 
high post beds, they could be moved 
fairly easily within a household in order 
to take advantage of a steady source of 
heat, adequate light, or a change in 
circumstances. Arrangements of room 
furnishings were not maintained for 
months or years at a time as they are 
today. Drop-leaf or folding tables, light- 
weight side chairs, small stands, and 
sewing tables could easily be assem- 
bled — for an activity or a meal — near a 
window with bright sunlight streaming 
through it or near a warm fireplace. 
Upholstered furniture was rare before 
the end of the eighteenth century, the 
most common form being side chairs. 
Comfortable easy chairs were expen- 
sive. yet those who could afford them 
used them functionally, drawn near the 
fireplace in a bed chamber where their 
broad wings offered added protection 
from drafts of cold air. 
During this period, spaces within 
houses were normally defined by their 
location or function. Historians find ref- 
erences to southeast and northwest par- 
lors or chambers, kitchens and keeping 
rooms, sitting rooms and dining rooms. 
There were best rooms and family par- 
N Y Public Library Coxe-GoWberg Photography 
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