Five Centuries of Fireplaces - Part 3

Five Centuries of Fireplaces - Part 3

20th Century

The previous post covered the many strands of style and design that flourished in the 19th century, culminating in the full flowering of High Victorian ornament and swinging back towards a simpler, hand-crafted aesthetic with the Arts & Crafts movement. As the 20th century opened designers broke away from the patterns of Classical and Gothic historical precedents and returned to a study of Nature, developing new approaches to ornament inspired by forms directly drawn from nature. This is most obvious in the work of Art Nouveau. Here is an example by an anonymous British designer from the first decade of the 20th century.

British Art Nouveau fireplace circa 1907 - https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/building-garden/fireplace-tools-chimney-pots/large-unusual-cast-iron-edwardian-art-nouveau-tiled-fireplace/id-f_13382941/

This example from the Gamble House in Pasadena, by Greene & Greene, draws inspiration not only from a direct examination of natural forms but also from the architectural and decorative traditions of Japan. Central to the work of the Greenes is an appreciation for the intrinsic aesthetic qualities of the base materials. Wood is carefully chosen and prepared to emphasize its grain patterns and color. Clay based ceramics show their natural color. Forms are simplified to keep the focus on the materials themselves.

Fireplace, Gamble House, Pasadena - photo by Tim Street, https://gamblehouse.org/interior/

Frank Lloyd Wright made the pursuit of the qualities of natural materials central to his entire approach to design, from the smallest to the largest details. Here is the fireplace at the Robie House. Wright chose a flat, narrow brick and used brick colored mortar in the vertical joints, while using a cream colored cement in the horizontal joints. This emphasized the horizontal lines of brick and this emphasis was repeated from the stone dressings all the way to the entire, horizontal massing of the house.

Wright, Robie House - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago,_robie_house_di_frank_lloyd_wright,_1908-1910,_salone_al_primo_piano,_03.jpg

Purcell & Elmslie, contemporaries of Wright and leading designers of the Prairie School created this pleasing composition, using materials and forms similar to Wright, but with a heavier and more muscular result. The fire grate ornament was repeated elsewhere in the house and the wood trim of the walls and ceilings integrates completely with the fireplace.

Purcell Elmslie, Babson House stables – 1915 - https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/il0315/

To see more photos of the Babson House and purchase copies of drawings of it please visit my store.

Here are two examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's fireplaces designs for the American System Built Homes series. These homes could be purchased as standardized, pre-cut packages, assembled on site. Some 25 were built across the Midwest. They were relatively low cost houses and the designs are simplified but still show the same inspiration that is found in the Robie House and Wright's other more opulent designs.

Wright – System Built #2 - https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/wi0260/

Wright – System built – 1916 - https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/wi0716/

Wright's design for the Emil Bach house (1915) departs dramatically from his earlier symmetrical designs and points the way towards his later Usonian house designs.

Wright – Emil Bach House – 1915 - https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/il0088/

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Check out this short video on things to think about when incorporating a fireplace into the design of your own home.

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In the early 1930s, out of a desire to address the changing economics of house construction and to broaden the availability of his house designs, Wright re-thought the entire construction system of houses, developing new solutions that were both more standardized and infinitely customizable to site and client. These Usonian houses almost always had a massive brick fireplace at their core. Often the kitchen and utility spaces backed up to it so that they all could share the same chimney and thus simplify the roof framing.

This photo shows the fireplace at the Pope House of 1950. More photos and drawings are available at my store.

Wright - Pope House - 1950 - https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/va0437/

While Wright's designs moved towards a greater simplicity, which would later be very influential in the Mid-Century Modern movement, there was a counter-movement of the more theatrical and flamboyant Art Deco.

Here are a few examples of the full flowering of Art Deco design. Some are British and others American.

American, electric fireplace - http://www.modernismgallery.com/american+art+deci+streamline+electric+faux+fireplace/

British - https://www.architecturalantiquesandfireplaces.co.uk/product.php?id=503

Here is a stunning example of the fireplace and mantel integrated into an entire interior design.

http://www.sarahakwisombe.com/blog/2014/4/27/art-deco-style-101

This sleek American Art Deco electric fireplace is from the 1930’s. The cabinet is mahogany and has a frosted glass inserted top. The “fire” is in a space flanked by ribbed pillars all in white lacquer. The “fire” is twisted rods glass, illuminated from behind. The fireplace has been refinished and rewired. There is a switch on the side to turn the lights on and off. The fireplace is 57” wide , 16” deep and 40” high.

American, electric -

https://modernism.com/items/39/other/179-116-american-art-deco-lighted-electric-fireplace

Twisted glass rod insert

With the end of World War II Art Deco fell out of style and there was a dramatic shift back toward the simplicity pioneered earlier by Frank Lloyd Wright. The arrival of leading Bauhaus architects to the USA gave this change in direction further impetus.
In this example by Mies van der Rohe, for the Edith Farnsworth House (1945-1951) the presence of the fireplace is suppressed as it nearly disappears into the cabinetry around it.

Farnsworth House - photo by Yorgos Efthymiadis - https://divisare.com/projects/397743-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe-yorgos-efthymiadis-farnsworth-house

However the majority of examples still retained the fireplace as the focal point of the space, typically taking advantage of the necessity of using masonry to make that masonry a counterpoint to the lighter structures around it.
This is an example by Claude Oakland, for one of Joseph Eichler's developments, dating from 1969.6

Claude Oakland, for Eichler – 1969 - https://www.dwell.com/article/gallery-eichler-home-claude-oakland-6d33061c

The following images are from the 1954 Book of Successful Fireplaces, published by The Donley Brothers Company. It provides a vivid glimpse into the changing American taste of the time.

https://archive.org/details/TheDonleyBrothersCoBookofsuccessfulfireplaces0001/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/TheDonleyBrothersCoBookofsuccessfulfireplaces0001/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/TheDonleyBrothersCoBookofsuccessfulfireplaces0001/mode/2up

Moving into the 1970s there is this example, by Frank Gehry at the Spiller House (1978).

Frank Gehry – Spiller House – 1978 – photo by André Corboz, Tim Street-Porter - https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/575264552399183444/

Since the 1970s 2 forces have pushed fireplace design into an entirely new direction. First, many traditional wood burning fireplace designs are inefficient and quite heavily polluting. Second, new technology has led to much greater freedom of design in gas fireplaces, which have at the same time become far more efficient, competing with gas furnaces as space heaters.
I leave you here with 2 recent and innovative fireplace designs that suggest how fireplaces can be used in yet new ways to complement interior space.

Bloch Design - http://www.bloch-design.com/modern-fireplace-design/

Town & Country Fireplaces – Helifire - http://townandcountryfireplaces.com/product/helifire-360/

If you have not already done so, please visit Parts 1 and 2 of this series, which covers Early American fireplaces from the late 1600s until the opening years of the 1800s, and 19th century designs.

If drawings of historic American homes are your thing then you will also probably enjoy browsing through my eBay store where I have close to 200 measured drawings available for purchase. So please drop by and pay me a visit.

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful day!

Five Centuries of Fireplaces - part 2

Five Centuries of Fireplaces - Part 2

19th Century

In the previous post I looked at the earliest, strictly practical, fireplaces built by the children and grandchildren of the first European settlers. These were efficient, substantial brick structures intended for heating and cooking. Following quickly on those came the refined and elegant mantel designs popularized by Robert and James Adam and picked up by American architects such as Thomas Jefferson.

Now we move into the 19th century, a time when popular taste became truly eclectic and a veritable battle of fashions raged.

What better place to start than the White House?

James Hoban, Irish immigrant to the newly independent United States, won the competition to design the White House based on a larger scheme than was actually built. Here are two of his drawings made after the decision to reduce its size.

White House Elevation, drawing by James Hoban - https://www.whitehousehistory.org/

White House Ground Floor Plan, drawing by James Hoban - https://www.whitehousehistory.org/

The original interior was probably similar to the Adam-inspired style found at Monticello, but in 1814 the interior was destroyed in a fire set by British troops. The reconstruction introduced the more robust and solid style of American Empire, which had its roots in neo-Classicism.

White House, The Red Room, mantel from 1818 - http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/

Recent excavations at Pompeii shifted the fashion away from Adam's light and delicate treatments. A renewed interest in ancient Roman and Greek brought with it a more academic attempt to recreate the Greek and Roman precedents. This Neo-Classical style generally followed one of two approaches. In the photo above we see the incorporation of human figures, or caryatids, contrasting with a geometric frame.

In the other approach the focus is on the geometry, an almost minimalist paring away of ornament. The mantel below may have been designed by Thomas Hope, an English immigrant to the United States. It captures the essence of the Neo-Classical style.

Fireplace in the manner of Thomas Hope - photo: 1stdibs.com

Here is one final example of an almost rustic version of the Neo-Classical, by an unknown Tennessee craftsman working in the later 1800s, but very much in the spirit of a few decades earlier.

A vernacular version of the Neo-Classical by an unknown Tennessee craftsman

Photo courtesy Preservation Station

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Queen Victoria to the throne of the United Kingdom in 1837, there was an upheaval in style and taste. Instead of a single predominating style a great competition arose between proponents of the existing Greek and Roman inspired designs versus the styles of the Middle Ages. The battle between the Classical and the Neo-Gothic had begun.

American Gothic fireplace made for Yale University ca. 1840 - photo: Architectural Accents

Classicism itself begun to divide into different streams such as Italianate, Palladian, and Baroque. Eclectic mixes and Revival styles emerged such as Elizabethan and Tudor revival. Carpenter Gothic combined elements of Gothic and Classical ornament and adapted them to the extensive timber resources and engine powered saw mills, which introduced a whole new technology for shaping wood.

Italianate Fireplace, Eslava Plantation -

 Italianate fireplaces, such as these examples, often incorporated arched openings. The example above is from the Eslava House in Spring Hill, Alabama. Drawings are available at my eBay store.

Italianate Fireplace, Hudson Valley, NY, 1850s - photo: Old House Online

 As coal supplanted wood as the most common fuel various inserts were developed and the open fireplace with its traditional burning log began to disappear.

Early 19th Century British Fireplace - Photo: MG Craftsmen

Here is a Gothic Revival fireplace from Chicago. Note the characteristic pointed arches on either side. These were the defining features of Gothic architecture and a favorite decorative device.

Gothic Revival fireplace mantel, Chicago, 1870s - photo: Urban Remains

As the century progressed fashions became ever more elaborate and eclectic, with elements of a wide variety of historical styles mixed to produce some surprising results. The following three images are from the catalog #10 of the Innes & Company of Cinncinati, published in 1880. The designs in the catalog cover the gamut of styles, sometimes within a single fireplace. A copy of the catalog can be found at Archive.Org.

A mix of Classical and Art Nouveau

Solidity and doubled columns typical of the Richardson Romanesque style

Colonial Revival

Charles Eastlake (1836-1906) was a British architect and furniture designer, and part of the circle of William Morris. Morris, Eastlake, Gustav Stickley and a host of other artists moved late Victorian taste towards a more disciplined and refined aesthetic based on an appreciation for the inherent qualities of natural materials and handicraft. Some, like Morris, sought to keep manual production techniques alive in the face of increasing automation and machine work. Others, like Eastlake, believed machine work could be incorporated into and reconciled with manual production, keeping handicraft alive and also making it more economically available to all people. Eastlake's book, Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details, was immensely influential and the Arts & Crafts movement led late 19th century America in a whole new direction as the 20th Century dawned.

But that's the material for my next blog post. So I will leave you here with two examples inspired the work of Charles Eastlake.

Eastlake Style, Philadelphia, PA, late 19th century - photo: Preservation Station

Eastlake Style, American, ca. 1890 - photo: WorthPoint

If you have not already, please visit Part 1 of this series, which covers Early American fireplaces from the late 1600s until the opening years of the 1800s.

If drawings of historic American homes are your thing then you will also probably enjoy browsing through my eBay store where I have close to 200 measured drawings available for purchase. I am also in the beginning stages of stocking a new store, www.HistoricAmericanHomes.com, where I will eventually be offering full construction document sets for people wanting to build a new home inspired by historical examples. So please drop by and pay me a visit.

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful day!

Five Centuries of Fireplaces - part 1

Five Centuries of Fireplaces - Part 1

17th and 18th Centuries

Let's enjoy a quick survey of fireplaces from the 1690s until today, strictly speaking about 325 years but spanning five centuries, the 17th through 21st. Funny how that works out. I've focused on American examples but there are a few European examples as well, to fill in key gaps.

This post looks at a late 17th century example and several 18th century examples. Nineteenth and 20th century examples will follow in separate posts and there will be a final post about fireplaces today.

Israel Arnold House, Lincoln, Rhode Island - 1695 - Photo by Historic American Building Survey (HABS)

The Israel Arnold House (1695) in Lincoln Rhode Island was built and expanded over several periods. But it started out as a two room cottage anchored by a massive fireplace. This is the gambrel roofed kitchen wing we see today. (All about gambrel roofs here.)

Israel Arnold House, Ground Floor Plan

In the floor plan above (see my eBay store for house plans) the kitchen can be seen at the left, with an oven to the left side.

Israel Arnold House, fireplace showing an array of cooking equipment

Israel Arnold House fireplace plan detail

The oven at the left is covered by a cast iron panel. Both wood and iron panels were commonly used. It was normal to build 2 or even 3 separate smaller fires in the fireplaces, for varied cooking and heating needs. The pivoting iron arm enabled cooks to move pots closer or further from the flames to control temperatures more precisely.

At the Peak House of 1711, in Medfield, MA, we see a picture of what the first 100 years of life was like in the new colonies. Security and warmth were paramount. There was no time for luxuries. But there was time to do things right.

Peak House, Medfield, MA - 1711 - Photo by HABS

The Peak House consists of sturdily built timber frame around a massive brick fireplace at its core. The fireplace includes an oven to one side. The brick chimney, heated by the fire at the ground floor, carried its heat up through the center of the house, warming all the rooms. Plans of the Peak House are available at my eBay store.

Peak House plans & elevations (HABS)

Peak House fireplace - photo courtesy: Patch

The Fenno House, at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA dates from 1725, just a few years later than the Peak House. The curators of the house have lovingly restored it and arranged it as it would have been originally.

Fenno House fireplace, Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA

The fireplace, set up for open cooking, also includes an oven in the back. A pair of log rests and a suspended kettle suggest how it was used. It was common practice to set multiple smaller fires within the one fireplace, depending on cooking and heating needs. A small fire of kindling could be set under the kettle at one side, or a larger fire for warmth could be set on the log rests, or even both fires could be set at the same time.

Fenno House fireplace, detail - Photo courtesy Colonial America: The Simple Life

By the middle of the century life was more prosperous. Time and resources could be devoted to some luxuries. Although fireplaces were still the primary means of heating homes, they could be more than utilitarian. They could exemplify the aesthetic ideals of the time as well.

The taste setter of the time was the Scottish architect, Robert Adam. Together with his brother James, he built and remodeled many great houses of the British elite, as well as developing the Adelphi Terrace in London. Most influential of all were his books, in which he published his own designs.

A mantelpiece design by Robert Adam, 1775

Adam's works were well known to the cultural leaders of early America, such as Thomas Jefferson, and copies of his books were found in American homes. On trips to London Jefferson himself saw buildings designed by Adam.

A mantelpiece design by Robert Adam

When Jefferson came to designing his own home at Monticello he looked to the works of Adam for inspiration.

Monticello Dining Room - 1770s - Photo courtesy Monticello.org

Clearly fireplaces such as this were no longer used for cooking. But they did still serve as the principal heat source. Kitchens typically migrated into the basement or into a separate building. At Monticello, the original, rather small kitchen was in a cellar. But as Jefferson expanded his home he added a much larger kitchen in the south wing, replete with a fireplace and two ovens, as well as a range of brick-built wood stoves.

Monticello, 1809 kitchen - Photo courtesy Monticello.org

But this brings us up to 1809. So it's time to end this post and save the 19th century for later this week.
Coming up next, the 19th Century in all its variety and profusion!

A Dutch Colonial Farmhouse of 1750

The Marbury House - A Dutch Colonial Farmhouse of 1750

Hi friends. This is the fourth in my series of blog posts on gambrel or Dutch roof houses. The first two and this one are early American examples, and one was a Colonial Revival plan from the 1920s. I decided to add this one because it differs in one important way. It is proportioned so that it allows 2 rows of rooms, one row facing front and the other facing back. The previous examples had attics that were effectively just one room deep.

The Marbury House, Clinton, Maryland - 1750

The Dutch roof is ideally suited to fit over a rectangle and doesn't adapt well to L-shaped plans. Typically wings get their own separate roofs, usually not a gambrel. The proportions of the typical rectangle can vary from long and shallow to almost square. When a plan is approaching a square and the depth starts to exceed 24 feet, it becomes practical for a gambrel roof to allow rooms facing front, as well as rooms facing back. This can be really useful especially in houses were more bedrooms might be desired.

The Marbury House - Floor Plans

This example, the Marbury home in Clinton, Maryland, dates 1750 and provides a fine example of this deeper type of plan. At a little over 28' deep it comfortably allows for 4 full bedrooms on the upper level. It is effectively a complete 2 story house, but maintains the lower proportions of a single story.

The Marbury House - Elevations

The Marbury House also provides an excellent example of a porch that is well integrated into the design.

The Marbury House - Details

The Marbury House - Details

The drawings posted here, prepared by the excellent drafts people at the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) include many fine details of interior woodwork as well. Printed copies of the drawings of this beautiful example of a Colonial gambrel roof home, are available at my eBay store.

The Marbury House - Entry Hall

This and other gambrel roof homes can be found in the Historic Home Plans eBay store.

The Marbury House - Dining Room

All the images in this blog post are public domain and come from the HABS website.

A Colonial Revival Gambrel Roof Home of the 1920s

The celebrations around the 1876 Centennial jump started an interest in all things Early American, architecture chief among them. This Colonial Revival reached its peak in the first decades of the 20th century, gracing our country with homes built along practical, simple lines, in a unified but infinitely varied style based on Palladian and Classical precedents.

In the last 3 blog posts we looked at 2 original Colonial and Early American examples of the gambrel or Dutch roof home, ranging from a cottage just one room deep, to a rambling farmhouse with plenty of space in its wide attic.

Dover Publications reprint of some of the plans made by ASHSB

In this post we'll see the gambrel roof used in a Colonial Revival home of the 1920s, from a pattern book of the time.

The Architects' Small House Service Bureau (ASHSB) started in 1919 as a joint effort among a group of architects to design and publish practical small home designs. Their work helped to spread good quality home design across the country at a time when there was major growth in home construction. The results of their efforts are visible in the pleasure people today have for the homes of the early 20th century.

Design 5-B-10 of the ASHSB

The plan comfortably accommodates a spacious living room, separate dining room, and a built-in kitchen containing all the conveniences that were to become the norm in the 20th century. It also had a dining porch to one side.

The upper level, in the expanded attic space enabled by the gambrel, contained a full bath and 2 bedrooms that were comfortably large for the period.

Floor Plans

The use of shed dormers to expand the attic space results in a design that is effectively almost a full 2 stories, while maintaining the lower lines and proportion of a single story home. The lovely ink rendering of the exterior shows it sensitively integrated into its surroundings with landscaping that softens edges and provides a seamless transition from street to home.

Exterior Perspective

Very little would need to be done to adapt a design such as this to modern day requirements. The design shows a stair descending to a basement. If this house were built without a basement the space under the stairs could serve as a powder room off the back entry. Enclosing the porch in glass might be desirable in many parts of the country where weather does not permit for outdoor living during much of the year.