Beckfoot layout


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Posted by Ed Kiser on October 30, 2008 at 18:19:05 user Kisered.

In trying to determine what rooms are where in Beckfoot, I have come across two drawings of the house, both in PM. One, the D's are hiding in the brush as Col. Jolys men are gathering at Beckfoot preparing to search for the missing GA. The other shows the D's at the top of the promentory, looking down on the lawn, where the GA is pointing to objectionable items to the two nieces.

There is a major inconsistence in the placement of the chimneys in these two drawings.

In the first mentioned drawing, there are two chimneys on the main part of the house, each about a third of the way from the end of the house, centered on the highest ridge of the room. There is a third chimney on the lower roof of the kitchen, and that chimney is right up next to the main house.

In the second mentioned drawing, there are visible only two of the chimneys, as the third near the front of the main house is out of the limits of the picture and so is not shown. But the two visible ones are not in the same place they were in the first drawing. The kitchen chimney is at the far end of the kitchen area, the end furthest away from the main house, and the one on the main house itself is not a third of the way in, but is at the end of the main house, just at the junction of the main house with the kitchen extension.

There is no mention of any fireplaces in Beckfoot. With the chimneys on the main house part on the peak of the roof that would seem to put them over the center of the house where I had felt would be the hallway, not exactly where a fireplace would normally be placed. Perhaps the rooms on one side are larger, so displacing this hallway to be to one side and not centered under these chimneys.

I can see how one chimney can service more than one fireplace, with each having its own flue up the chimney.

This inconsistency of the placement of these chimneys, and the centering of them over the middle of the house, does confuse the concepts of where the fireplaces might be, and thus the positioning of the several rooms involved.

I have thought that the heating of this house would be done only by fireplaces, with one in each room, but there is not text evidence of such arrangements. I can find no reference to any fireplaces in Beckfoot.

Perhaps instead of fireplaces, a more free-standing stove, with stovepipe over to the chimney, might the the heating source, but again, no mention is made of such a method of heating.

Perhaps someone could suggest what was the common mode of heating such a two story house back in the 30's, and would the fuel used be coal or wood.

Ed Kiser, Kentucky, (may TarBoard live on...)


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