MANTELS AND CHIMNEY PIECES
In Colonial times fireplaces were a necessity. They supplied the only means of heating the house, and much of the cooking was done by them also. Indeed, the hanging of the crane was regarded as a signal event in establishing a new home, and often a cast-iron fireback bore the date of erection of the house and the name or initials of its owner. Each of the principal rooms had its fireplace and often a large parlor, drawing-room or library had two fireplaces, usually at opposite ends or sides, though rarely on the same side, as in the library at Stenton. The hearthstone was the center of family life, and architects, therefore, very properly made the mantels and chimney pieces with which they embellished the fireplace the architectural center of each room,—the gem in a setting of nicely wrought interior woodwork.
Then came the Franklin stove, throwing more heat out into the room and less up the chimney. Fireplaces were accordingly bricked up to accommodate it, a pipe was run into it, and presently the[170] air-tight stove supplanted Franklin's open grate. Later central heating plants for hot air, steam and hot water were developed in the basement and connected by pipes with registers and radiators in the various rooms above. They gave greater and more even heat, consumed less fuel and were more easily taken care of than several fires in various parts of the house. For a time houses were built for the most part without fireplaces, but gradually a sense of loss began to be generally felt. These registers and radiators warmed the flesh, but they left the spirit cold; there was no poetry or sentiment whatever about them.
The outcome was obvious. The central heating plant has of course remained, but recent years have witnessed the general reopening of bricked-up fireplaces in old houses large and small, and to-day few new houses are built without a fireplace in the living room at least. To a degree it is a luxury, perhaps, though not a very expensive one, yet it is something for which all able to do so are very glad to pay. Besides, on chilly spring and autumn days and rainy summer evenings it provides a cheap and convenient auxiliary heating plant. But an open fire warms more than the hands and feet; it reaches the heart. Its appeal goes back to the tribal camp-fire and stirs some primitive instinct in man. "Hearth and home" are synonymous; there is a whole ritual of domestic worship which centers[171] around an open fire. A blaze on a hearth is more than a luxury, more than a comfort; it is an altar fire.
