8 Historic Fireplaces to Warm Up Your Day
It is a truth universally acknowledged (or, if not, we’re acknowledging it here) that those who love old buildings also love fireplaces. There’s something both primal and endlessly comforting about coming in from a chilly commute, a day of running errands, or a round of shoveling snow and sitting down in front of a toasty hearth.
The best fireplaces have a gravitational pull to them, inviting deep conversations over cups of hot chocolate or mulled wine. Whether in a humble log cabin, a Colonial-era rowhouse, or a grand robber-baron estate, they serve as (literally) built-in reminders that winter, while cold and sometimes bleak, does have its advantages.
Below, we’ve chosen some of our favorite fireplaces from past Preservation magazine stories to help you ward off the season’s chill.
photo by: Don Freeman
When the Fisher-Kahn House was under construction in the 1960s, Modernist architect Louis Kahn asked the stonemasons to rake out the mortar joints in the fireplace so the stones would appear to be dry-laid. The half-round, Montgomeryville stone chimney anchors the 1,800-square-foot house, located in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
photo by: Trent Bell
The Dayton-James House in Newport, Rhode Island, is part of the Newport Restoration Foundation's tenant-steward program. The circa-1758 house’s Federal-style living room mantelpiece was likely salvaged from a nearby property and added to the Colonial-era building.
photo by: Trent Bell
The dining room fireplace at Dayton-James (one of three in the house) was discovered during the restoration process.
photo by: Jay Graham
The Arts & Crafts-style fireplace in Phoebe Apperson Hearst Social Hall (1913) at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. Its architect, Julia Morgan, often included large, dramatic fireplaces in her work.
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photo by: Lincoln Barbour
At Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House (a National Trust Historic Site in Alexandria, Virginia) the patterning of the brick chimney and hearth reinforce the horizontality of the architecture.
photo by: Scott Suchman
Contractor Chris Howlett discovered a covered-up fireplace in Sarah Holway’s Waterford, Virginia, kitchen and sitting room during renovations. It’s now surrounded by unadorned plaster and flanked by bookshelves.
photo by: Scott Suchman
The fireplace in Holway’s living room was blocked off at some point so the chimney could hold vents for the circa-1800 house’s oil-burning furnace.
photo by: Dina Avila
At the Burkes-Belluschi House in Portland, Oregon, architect Pietro Belluschi created a massive fireplace using Mount Adams stone. His son and daughter-in-law, Tony and Marti Belluschi, had the stone cleaned when they restored and renovated the 1940s residence.
