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July 26, 2006

Uncovering Old Hearth?

I've started to uncover what looks like a hearth in the rear of my garden level. The brick (some of which--the original stuff?--was done well but other parts of which--newer?--is sloppy) was covered in metal and sheet rock. Behind that (this is as far as I've gotten) it seems that someone also covered up the opening to the chimney with sheet of metal. I'm debating between aborting mission and re-sheet-rocking the hole I've made or continuing... Anyone have experience with this? Advice?

Comments

you have discovered the original oven that was used in the 19th century. i begged my architect to do something interesting with it in my renovation but she was adamant that it was best covered up. i still think it was a lack of imagination on her part...

Posted by: anonymous at July 26, 2006 3:20 PM

How did she/you cover it? Sheet rock?

Posted by: rebecca at July 26, 2006 3:45 PM

Anonymous is right. Pretty much all brownstones have the "hearth" your talking about in the back room of the garden level. Some have been covered up. Occaisonally you still find the old cast iron stoves that sat in the recessed space.

Posted by: 1847 at July 26, 2006 3:50 PM

I discovered mine in a similar situation. The hearth had been boarded up with old burnt logs still resting in the oven.

Posted by: Tony at July 26, 2006 5:07 PM

Tony (and others..), so what did you do once you found it? Boarded it back up? Left it exposed? Other? Thanks.

Posted by: rebecca at July 26, 2006 8:12 PM

We also have the one in the back room of the garden floor and it had been covered. We exposed that chimney wall and cleaned the bricks. It has this large peace of stone as a manlte with arched bricks over it. We have forced heat going through the house so what we did was rebricked the back and set our stove in that space. It looks really nice. The only problem is that we haven't been able install a venting system, because we don't want to cover the hearth. However we recently saw a vent that comes behind the stove and we would vent it through the basement. It looks like that may solve that issue. Good luck!

Posted by: Anonymous at July 27, 2006 11:14 AM

I've also seen people make it into a five foot high cupboard/closet with doors on the front.

Posted by: Anonymous at July 27, 2006 12:38 PM

I have just re-opened my hearth and am putting my gas range back into the opening. My contractor has sheetrocked the interior and we will cover it with subway tiles. I found a recessed range hood by Broan which will mount in a plywood panel at the top and vent out through the original flue. I can send you some pics if you want.

Posted by: Hancock1 at July 27, 2006 4:25 PM

I have the same situation and I'm going with the cupboard idea.

Posted by: faithful at July 27, 2006 4:54 PM

We stuck a 6 burner Wolf range and vented range hood in ours. Used the old chimney line works great.

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