SOME USES FOR FIELD STONE 
By Phebe Westcott Humphreys 
A CELEBRATED builder recently gave 
us sound advice when we consulted 
him as to the best plans for chimney and 
fireplace for a mountain bungalow: “Prac¬ 
tice economy in other respects if necessary,” 
he said, “but don’t give up a fireplace if you 
would follow the example of the early set¬ 
tlers in your mountain home, and make the 
most of the materials at hand. For the 
Indian’s wigwam, a bare spot of earth two 
of three feet in diameter is the sole requisite 
for the family hearth. In the log cabin of 
the pioneer, which I hold in still higher 
reverence, a hollow pyramid of durable 
stones, roughly heaped together and pointed 
perhaps with clay, diffuses the warmth and 
comfort in which the germs of a higher civili¬ 
zation begin to grow. For the home of an 
honest man, than which no worthier^ob ject 
of veneration can be 
found on the face of the 
earth, a simple niche of 
any incombustible mate¬ 
rial with an outlet for 
smoke and a hearth for 
ashes and the household 
gods, is the fundamental 
essential of that feature 
without which no house 
is complete. And while 
you are about it, give the 
chimney and fireplace the 
effect of completeness 
and appropriateness that 
can be obtained in no 
other way, by building 
of the field stone in the 
vicinity of your bunga¬ 
low.” 
We have come to 
realize the soundness of 
this advice by studying 
the summer homes not 
only in our favorite 
mountain fastnesses in 
the Pocono regions, but 
also in the Adirondacks, 
and along the lower sec¬ 
tions of the Blue Ridge. In the latter, sharp, 
rough, field stone (frequently offering many 
decorative features) comprises the principal 
building material, in connect'on with logs, in 
the bungalow building, while in the mountains 
above the Delaware Water Gap, especially at 
Buck Hill and in the Poconos, cobble stones 
are more plentiful than any other natural 
variety of building material. 
It would seem at first thought that here is 
a field stone simply impossible for practical 
building material, and yet during the past 
two or three years wonderful results have been 
accomplished with the immense quantities 
of small, smooth, round stones commonly 
designated as “ cobbles,” of which the 
mountain slopes in these sections are largely 
composed. 
When cobble stones were first denounced 
as an impossible building 
material, it was because 
of the very feature that 
is now considered orna¬ 
ment a I in wall and 
chimney construction,— 
their smallness and their 
smooth surfaces,—which 
offered little hold for the 
mortar or concrete in 
forming a firm, strong 
wall. Especially was this 
the case in outside chim¬ 
ney building, but this 
objection is overcome by 
the use of pure cement 
or the addition of con¬ 
crete in cobble building. 
Chimneys show their 
purpose, and serve as a 
relief to the monotony 
by being carried up on 
the exterior of the bunga¬ 
low walls. They not 
only form an ornament 
by having their projec¬ 
tions on the outside, but 
also save room within— 
an important feature 
A FIELD STONE CHIMNEY FOR 
A LOG CABIN 
217 
