Dining Room - House of the Future
The steam heating system is original to the house. Steam heat was another state-of-the-art innovation that Henry Rogers installed in his home. The original round-finned radiators, called “fish scale” radiators, are still in use after almost 140 years.
The other radiators were installed in the 1930s when Hearthstone served as a tearoom (a small restaurant). In fact, the name Hearthstone was used for the restaurant – because of the house’s nine fireplaces - and the building has been known by that name ever since.
The fireplaces were not used as the primary source of heat but they were lit when the weather was cold to take the chill off of rooms. The fireplaces burned bricks of coal. The extra bricks were kept in the decorative boxes next to the fireplaces. These were called hods.