LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - OCTOBER 3, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio We knew that the southeast chimney on LeRoy House needed to be repaired. Bricks were falling onto the driveway. The chimney is connected to three fireplaces and the brick bread oven in the basement, so it was important to have it rebuilt because we use the basement fireplace for demonstrations. We found a mason who was willing to do the work, and we were able to raise the money to have it done. So, this past weekend, David Luvchuck and his brother were high on the lift, on the side of LeRoy House. They removed all the loose bricks and reset them. The iron damper had to be reset, because it was loose and they installed three chimney flues to stabilize the upper chimney. And on the last day, they poured a cement chimney cap. Eventually, next year we will have the two chimneys on the west side of the house repaired. I have always wondered about the grey brick, which seem to be a “modern” brick, and David confirmed that below the metal flashing are the red bricks from the early 1800s when the house was built. As I watched the work on the chimney, almost four stories in the air, I couldn’t help but imagine what it was like to work on these chimneys when they were first built. I recently heard of a mason, who was building a chimney in Bergen, many many years ago. He fell off the chimney into a rain barrel on the ground, but he wasn’t found until later that day. He was taken to the hospital with broken ribs and a punctured lung. He died of pneumonia a couple of months later. Many years later, the chimney was rebuilt, and they discovered a “little brown jug” on the smoke shelf inside the chimney - - perhaps evidence of the reason for the fatal fall years earlier. We don’t pay much attention to chimneys today, but when houses were heated with fireplaces, or cooking was done in a huge open hearth, the chimney was critical. If you have visited Genesee Country Museum, you might want to look at the chimneys on the village square. The oldest house, the Amherst- Humphrey from Lima, circa 1797, has a huge center chimney. All the fireplaces – I think there are seven - - are connected to that one chimney. Houses like LeRoy House circa 1823, have chimneys located on the ends of the house. Dampers were not used, so the open flues into the chimney were like having windows open. Air from outside was sucked in through the old windows. There was no such thing as an airtight building at that time. Houses were drafty on purpose, to feed air to the fireplaces. The cooking fireplace was in use every day, all year long. It was critical to prevent creosote from building up on the walls so only dry hardwood was used. Chimneys still needed to be cleaned yearly. Sometimes chains were dropped from above, to loosen the creosote. Chimney sweeps were kept busy year round. (Remember Mary Poppins!) When iron stoves were introduced in the 1840s, large chimneys weren’t needed. Stove pipes were often stuck up into the chimney or out through a hole in an exterior wall. Some people refused to install stoves, because they thought that they cut down on the healthful circulation of air through the house. (As a side note, the story of St. Nicholas, coming down the chimney was written in the 1820s, when everyone had a huge chimney, so it wasn’t difficult imagining Santa bringing his sack full of toys down the chimney. But soon, with the disappearance of the chimney, the story became a reflection on the old days, as it is today.) I drove around LeRoy looking for interesting chimneys. Some were nothing more than cement block going up the side of a building, obviously to vent a furnace. Many old chimneys have been rebuilt or replaced. If you look carefully at the old buildings on Main Street, you will see chimneys on the top of the walls. Probably the most interesting chimney, I found is on Church Street. Actually, there are three on the house, and are a part of the architecture. I also included a photograph of the chimney on the side of my house, which was built in 1976 when we installed a huge cooking fireplace and brick oven. The chimney was like a square silo on the end of the house, until we put up a log cabin, which now surrounds the chimney. The cabin is heated with a wood-burning stove, which has a stovepipe into the chimney. And I must remember to have the chimney cleaned this year. Chimneys From Left to Right: Chimney on Church Street. Chimney in my log cabin. Medina Sandstone Chimney on West Main. Chimney on corner of Clay and Myrtle. Chimney on East Main.