Was my 50s fireplace originally painted - or unpainted? Spokane Chris ponders.
Mid Mod Pam on Sep 05 2008 at 8:00 am | Filed under: FAQs
Hi Pam,
I love your website. It is truly one of the most valuable resources for a mid-century home owner…keep up the amazing work!
Anyway, I’m writing to ask you a strange question, and any answer you may have will assist me in making some decisions with regard to a future restoration project in my 1958 living room. I am wondering if you have any ideas about how often (if ever) roman brick fireplaces were painted in the 1950s. Was it a fairly common practice to paint over the bricks as soon as they were installed?
Normally, I would just assume that a previous owner painted over the brick years later to change the look. However, over the last several months, I have noticed that every roman brick fireplace I’ve seen in homes throughout my neighborhood is painted. Same color, same texture, everything exactly like mine. Could this paint be original to the homes’ design, or did painting one’s fireplace become such a big trend later on, that everyone was doing it.
I live in Spokane, Washington. The fireplace photo I’ve attached was taken quite awhile ago, but should give you a pretty good view of what I’m talking about. The other two attachments are pictures of “roman bricks” (actually, I snagged one photo from 1951 Ranch Redo’s site). Apparently, they were a fairly popular brick choice in the 1950s, although this popularity may have been pretty specific to the Pacific Northwest, I’m not sure. Every fireplace/chimney in my neighborhood (a housing development containing homes built exclusively between 1955 and 1963) is constructed of these bricks, and every one that I’ve seen is painted white, exactly like mine.
Strange question, I know, but thought you may have some info. Thanks so much, I’m excited to see what you may be able to find out. Take care.
Chris
It’s nice to hear from you, Chris, with this interesting question. Hmmm. I am not sure of the answer. I will keep an eye out when looking at periodicals from the period. Meanwhile, initial thoughts:
- My first inclination at a response is: No, they were not originally painted. I would normally guess this because (1) there definitely was a trend to ‘bring the outside in’ in the postwar period…(2) they liked mixing textures…(3) I think I’ve seen many more examples of un-painted fireplaces from the period rather than painted ones, and… (4) people were penny-wise…
- All that said, I agree that it seems more than a coincidence that all your neighbors have the exact same paint-job down to the look and texture. So it could well be a local design preference, or a quirk of the builder.
- More: Also, I can’t say that the photo of the exterior bricks you sent makes the bricks look all that attractive for an interior installation. Standing back and looking at the brick on the exterior of your house, would you say that it would look good, unpainted, inside? Maybe this is a key to the puzzle. To be sure, people in the 50s greatly preferred brick homes. It was a big selling point. So maybe these bricks were less expensive…but still could help increase the home’s value…but inside, they had to paint them.
- As for the possibility that the painting came later - I don’t know enough about what trends swept through the country post-1965. Again, even so, it would seem strange that every house latched on, and with the identical paint job.
- Finally - it sure is nice looking! Why haven’t you sent me more pics of your house? Tell us more!
Sorry I could not be more definitive in my help. As I try to say often, I am not an academic expert, just an enthusiastic blogger.
As usual - I welcome all readers’ thoughts on this!
There is one very distinctive house in my neighborhood that is built of these roman bricks (I never knew what they were called). However, they are of a uniform sandy tan color and the effect is a very modern look. Those horizontal lines is part of what shouts “mid-century” to me.
I live in the South Seattle area in a 1953 rambler and my fireplace is almost identical to Spokane Chris’ fireplace. Right down to the shiny white paint.
I’ve been pondering stripping the paint off of my fireplace to see what is hiding underneath. The area in front of it is made up of terra cotta tiles and is very pretty next to the darkish hardwoods of the floor. How funny to see another painted 50s fireplace!
My house also has a raised brick flower box underneath the front windows. It’s maybe 8 feet long by 2 feet deep and 2 feet high. It has also been painted white. What are the odds that it will be made from the same brick as the fireplace?
The chimney was rebuilt after the earthquake we had up here in February of 2001, and we did not move into the house until October of 2001 so I don’t know what it looked like originally.
Hi Chris,I’m not an authority in your area of the country but I can tell you about my mom and our 1950’s brick ranch house in Arlington,Va. The house was built in 1955 and we had a natural brick fireplace as did everyone in our neighborhood.My mom was into decorating and actually became an interior designer later in life.She was always trying new things in our house and she was the first in our area to paint both our walls and our fireplace white in 1960.It caused quit a stir at the time!What I would suggest is to ask around amongst any old timers or original owners to see who the builder was and what was done back then,They would surely have a story to tell as to whether it was a neighborhood trend or a forward thinking builder trying to be very contemporary.Best of luck in your search for authenticity!
My parents home in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (North Shore Coast area) was custom designed and built in 1952. The brick fireplace was at least 10-12 feet wide, and was always white brick. I was 6 at the time and remember it well. They also added a Ben Franklin firelace/stove in the bonus room, and had that brick painted white also, sometime early ’60’s. Natural brick outside and painte brick inside seems to be fairly common in the States. The ’50’s modern style was the impetus to this design, IMHO.