Keeping Warm
As 2019 arrives, I am switching up the focus of my then and
now articles for Our Towne Bethlehem. Since my first article appeared in February
2013, I have been inspired by old photographs of Bethlehem people, buildings
and scenes. My curiosity led me to find out more and share it with you. In
fact, I have gathered up the past 3 years’ worth of articles into a new book. Bethlehem People and Places (published
by Troy Book Makers) is due out in mid-February.
For 2019, I am going to seek my inspiration in objects. I’ve been inspired by Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects and
the Albany Institute of History and Art’s exhibit “The Capital Region in 50
Objects.” Which objects will open a window
into local Bethlehem history? The
Bethlehem Historical Association has a wide-ranging collection of objects and
artifacts, and I am looking forward to partnering with them to see what we can
discover. If you have ideas about
historical objects, please be sure to pass them along.
Parlor Stoves
As winter is upon us, my mind turns to keeping warm. If you
have ever gathered around a wood burning fireplace, you know that half the heat
goes up the chimney leaving the rest of the house cold. As you warm your hands, your front side is
roasting while your backside is freezing.
People were always trying to find a better way to keep warm.
Cast iron box stoves, with their more efficient radiating
heat, were coming into use in Albany in the 1740s. These 6 plated stoves were a
basic rectangle with a door on one end to add fuel and a smoke pipe on the back
that connected a chimney. General Philip Schuyler, in 1776 while furnishing the
army at Saratoga for the winter, ordered fifty such stoves each to be 30 inches
long and 20 inches high. In 1742, Ben
Franklin invented his Pennsylvania Fireplace, which was originally intended to
be inserted into an existing fireplace.
Others improved upon the idea creating the freestanding Franklin Stove you
can still purchase today. One defining
characteristic of a Franklin-type stove are the wide doors that open to give
the look of fire place.
Through the creative minds of engineers and foundrymen, the
simple box stove grew and changed and improved. Column styles and baseburners
led to greater efficiency. The medium of cast iron led to amazing design
elements. In the mid to late 1800s you could find stoves embellished with
columns, swags and urns. A favorite is “Morning Call” manufactured by Stow
& White of Troy that features a large, crowing rooster on the front. Base burning parlors stoves with their cylindrical
shape often had isinglass panes (thin, transparent sheets of mica) that emitted
a golden light.
At the same time that parlor stoves were taking off, their
larger counterparts in the basement were also coming online. Hot air, stream and hot water central heating
systems were all happening in the 1800s. The familiar hot water radiator we
still see today was first developed in 1863.
Think about how all this heat changed the way people live. Just in domestic architecture, the lofty
Victorian style home would just not be comfortable if we only had fireplaces for
heat. John I. Mesick says it best in his
forward to the book Cast With Style.
Stoves made
possible the development of a distinctly American domestic architecture…houses
became large rambling affairs, with wings and bays spreading outward to provide
rooms with exposures on three sides.
Windows took on increasingly ample size to further open the dwelling to
its setting. Internally, the tightly
compartmented houses of earlier times were dissolved into a free flow of
spaces…as high-ceilinged rooms were opened wide onto one another and central
stairhalls were extended upward through several stories.”
Here in upstate New York, as winter surrounds us, take a
moment to appreciate the central heating we enjoy in modern time.
Want to learn more and see some of these great old stoves in
person? Visit the exhibit “Heavy Metal:
Cast Iron Stoves of the Capital Region” at the Albany Institute of History and
Art now through August 18, 2019. Read
more in the original exhibit catalog from 1981: “Cast With Style Nineteenth
Century Cast-iron Stoves from the Albany Area” introduction and catalog by
Tammis Kane Groft.
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This “Handsome Acme Comfort Parlor Heater” was advertised in
the 1902 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. It burned either hard or soft coal
and came in three sizes. The largest was
38 ½ inches tall and cost $7.44. They
also offered a smaller version that could easily be adapted to burn natural
gas.
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Katie Ladd was a stenographer at the Callanan Road
Improvement Company for six years, leaving the company in May 1916. She is pictured here in her South Bethlehem
office, seated at the typewriter typing up her shorthand notes. On the left of
the picture one can see the distinctive curve of a parlor stove.
Part of the
inspiration for this article is this pot belly stove found in the tollgate
building at the Cedar Hill Schoolhouse Museum, home of the Bethlehem Historical
Association. Pot belly stove were a more utilitarian stove especially compared
to the fancy parlor stove. They first
appeared in the mid-1800s and were often found in train stations and one-room
schools. This one could burn wood or coal and had a flat cooking area on the
top.
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The Town Historian’s office has few historic photos that
show the interiors of old homes. This
one, with a heating radiator front and center, is from the early 20th
century. The home is located on South Street in South Bethlehem. Radiators such as this one came into use as
early as the 1860s and 70s. A furnace in the basement heated the hot water that
circulated in the system.
Cast iron kitchen ranges developed hand in hand with the
heating parlor stove. In the photo here, a member of the Degenaar family poses
with her kitchen range, circa 1920. It
is found in an album of Degenaar family photos and might be Augusta
Degenaar. Augusta and her husband John
were living on South Pearl Street in Albany for the 1925 N.Y. census but had
moved to Clapper Road in Bethlehem by the time of the 1930 U.S. Census. Augusta
was “keeping house” and John was a chauffeur.
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