July, 1922 
S3 
The fireplace, with its chimney piece and overmantel, is in¬ 
variably the focal point of a room. Consequently, one 
should select the design according to the types and purposes 
of the room. The living room in the home of W. Perry Cur¬ 
tis, at New Haven, Ct., is paneled and furnished after the 
Colonial taste and the chimney piece and paneled over¬ 
mantel are in harmony with the fine collection of early 
American furniture. Charles E. Cutler, architect 
IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUILD 
Consider the Fireplace and Its Contribution to the Comfort 
and Beauty of the Rooms in that New House 
B UILDING a house is a romantic ad¬ 
venture. As we grow in architectural 
grace, it may also become an educational 
enterprise. In time, quite likely, chatty sen¬ 
tences embracing “Doric detail”, “Palladian 
influence”, “Colonial variation”, will fall trip- 
ingly from our lips. Gradually the difference 
between concrete and cement will become es¬ 
tablished in our reluctant minds. We will 
learn to turn coldly away from cast iron (it 
must be wrought); eventually we will read a 
blue print as lightly as though it were a best 
seller, and check up a specification as easily 
as a bill from the milliner’s. To our homeless 
neighbors we will speak of hollow tile, ex¬ 
panded metal lath, of trim, of valves', of clas¬ 
sic hoods, airily, yet as to one having authority. 
By and by, we learn to support this weight 
of knowledge with quiet grace, eventually it 
slips into a useful background, and then we 
awaken to the real romance of building a 
house, with the realization of all the wonder 
mere windows and doors have added to civili¬ 
zation—in fact, to what extent they are civili¬ 
zation. And the fascinating importance of the 
fireplace is born in upon us. 
Early in the development of home architec- 
MARY FANTON ROBERTS 
ture, the fireplace became the center of decora¬ 
tive interest. In time it was ornamented from 
ceiling to hearth, richly carved pillars sup¬ 
ported its lintel, the chimney breast of the 
French fireplaces carried the finest examples 
of Grisaille and Camieau; swags in polychrome 
or white circled the fireplace. Then it was in¬ 
terpolated into famous furniture periods, set¬ 
tles and great couches were placed in front of 
it, and in Colonial and Jacobean times the 
opening for the actual fire was so broad, that 
seats were built in the chimney sides. Stone 
and brass were finely and fantastically devel¬ 
oped for fireplace fittings, tiles were brought 
from southern countries for the hearth and the 
fireplace became the pet of the domestic archi¬ 
tect. 
The fireplace has been no mere home-build¬ 
ing detail, not just an opportunity for com¬ 
fortable evenings in the winter time. It has 
helped make history. It has brought romance 
into architecture, just as the casement window 
did centuries ago, and as the garden gate did 
later. 
The first fireplaces were built of stone in the 
center of the room, in fact the central hearth 
is still found in the teepees of our North Ameri¬ 
can Indians. The only way in which the 
smoke was carried off in those early days was 
through a hole in the roof, through crevices 
about the windows and through open doors. 
Chaucer was troubled by smoke at some femi¬ 
nine occasion, and noted complainingly, “Full 
sooty was her bower, and eek hir hall, in which 
she eet full many a sclendre meal”. But the 
central hearth with all its inconveniences did 
bring warmth into the house and furnished 
opportunity for cooking indoors, and at night 
the masters and their henchmen and their dogs 
clustered about it to sleep. But civilization 
moved and at last smoke turrets were intro¬ 
duced into the roofs and louvers came into 
existence so that smoke could escape without 
letting in rain and wind. 
A little later the movable brazier arrived 
and was definitely more comfortable than the 
fixed hearth in those enormous huge halls. 
Gradually a little imagination crept into 
the question of heating great palaces, and the 
fireplace was shifted back against a wall, some¬ 
times to the corner of the room. There were 
no chimneys, to be sure, but tall hoods were 
introduced that projected over the hearth, and 
sloped back to the wall at the roof, the smoke 
