Existing comment:
Keeping Warm:
This fireplace shows a sequence of events. What do you see?
1. Notice the vertical line which separates the fireplace from the wall. If the fireplace had been built as part of the wall, no vertical line would exist.
2. Why was the fireplace opening bricked in? Perhaps it was for installation of a more efficient heating system.
3. A pipe hole cut into the chimney suggests that a stove replaced the fireplace as the primary heat source for this building.
Later the wall of a new alley isolated this fireplace. That left only one stove/fireplace to heat the entire first floor. |