1936 Georgian Fireplace Rebuild — Lovers Lane, University Park

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The house was built in 1936 on a Lovers Lane lot in University Park. It is a fully fledged Georgian — symmetric facade, side-gabled roof, dentil cornice, six-over-six windows. The principal-room fireplace was originally specified, drawn, and built in matching Georgian detail with a fluted mantel and a proper overmantel running to the cornice. Then, sometime in the early 1970s, the original mantel was removed during a renovation and replaced with a flat oak surround.

The current owners had bought the house knowing the surround was wrong for it. They had also been given, by the previous owners, an envelope of black-and-white photographs from the 1940s showing the principal room as it had been built. The fireplace was visible in three of the photographs.

The photographs were the brief.

A surviving period photograph is a useful reference. It is not a working drawing. We could see the basic mantel profile, the location of the fluting, the proportion of the marble slip, and the relationship of the overmantel to the room’s cornice. We could not see — without measurement — the depth of the mantel shelf, the precise rise of the fluting, the section profile of the moldings, or the stone of the slip.

The other problem was the firebox. The 1970s remodel had not just changed the mantel — it had also reduced the firebox opening, presumably to fit a smaller insert. The opening had been bricked in by about four inches on each side and three inches at the head. From a Georgian-correctness standpoint, the firebox was reading too tall and too narrow.

The work, then, was twofold. Rebuild the mantel and overmantel from photographs and educated reconstruction. Restore the firebox opening to its original proportions.

• Poplar mantel and overmantel, primed for paint
• Carrara marble slip, low-sheen finish
• Original Cordova Cream surround stones (existing, restored)
• Refractory mortar
• Original 1936 cast-iron damper (restored)

Eight weeks from contract to commissioning. Documentary research and design lock took the first two weeks; mantel milling took three weeks running parallel with firebox infill removal; installation was one week; commissioning and final paint were the eighth.

The room reads, by the homeowners’ assessment and by the photographs, as it would have in 1942. The mantel is appropriate to the period and the architecture; the overmantel terminates correctly; the firebox proportions are right. The fireplace has been used through two winters since commissioning without incident.

The homeowners have said, separately, that the room “feels finished” for the first time since they have owned the house. That is the language we listen for at project close.

The interior designer of record on the larger home renovation has been credited on a separate page at the firm’s request. Cross-reference is available on request.

For other pre-war restorations, see the Highland Park Tudor restoration, the Devonshire pre-war firebox rebuild, or the Lakewood Spanish Eclectic mantel restoration.

Return to the main portfolio index or browse the University Park area page.

To discuss your own pre-war fireplace project, reach our design team at 214-444-8094.

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