Wood Burning Fireplace

There is nothing that brings memories of winters gone by better than a wood burning fireplace. The atmosphere a simple item like this can create is one of nostalgic warmth and comfort. Not many homes have a wood burning fireplace but there is a move towards recreating this traditional element in homes across the country.

Generations ago people did not have any other way to heat their homes aside from their wood burning fireplace. As advances in technology and home construction took hold fewer and fewer homes came equipped with this necessity of years gone past. Furnaces made the wood burning fireplace practically obsolete.

Some homes still had the element in their structure because they were built during a time when fireplaces were necessary to heat the rooms of the home. In fact, many older homes had a wood burning fireplace in nearly every room. As the need for this heating source dwindled so did the production of such elements.

When I was a child my family moved into an old Victorian home. At the time I didn’t know why certain part of the wall in some rooms stood out. My mother explained that there used to be a wood burning fireplace in many of the rooms. This was how the original owners kept the house warm.

Later, a furnace was placed in the old Victorian home that served to heat the entire house without the nuisance of having to start a fire and keep it going all day and all night long. The owners of the home had each wood burning fireplace filled and covered with plaster. The magnificent fireplaces stayed behind the plaster for many, many years.

That is until we moved into the house. My mother decided that we should enjoy the appearance of the wood burning fireplace in our living room. She took a hammer to the plaster and began chipping away. My brother and I were more than happy to join her as her wrecking crew.

We found that the wood burning fireplace was made entirely of brick. The previous owner poured cement into the chimney to close the space. We would never be able to have a fire but we could enjoy looking at the beautiful brick structure. My parents built a lovely mantle for the non-working wood burning fireplace that really brought the whole look together.

We moved out of the old Victorian home years ago but I remember dreaming of the original owners sitting in front of their wood burning fireplace.