Author: PHW

During the Holiday House Tour, a few people commented on the hook in the center of the kitchen lighting fixture at the Hexagon House. Before the chandelier’s transition to electricity, the hook likely held a smoke bell to catch any soot from burning the oil or gas fuel before it could stain the ceiling.

Although not identical to the chandelier at the Hexagon House, you can see a number of gas fixtures with smoke bells in the National Park Service’s Gaslighting in America book. Plate 82 in particular is quite clear. Still not convinced? There is one other smoke bell installed downstairs at the Hexagon House. You can view this smoke bell at close to eye level by partially climbing the stairs to the second floor.

We were devastated to learn of the fire that took place last night on the south end of the Loudoun Street Mall involving three significant buildings – the Cork Street Tavern, the Sperry House, and Beyond the Fringe. Although the cause of the fire is unknown at this time, we would like to take this moment to share some materials on fire prevention in historic buildings.

Although geared more to cultural institutions like museums and archives, J. Andrew Wilson’s Fire Protection in Cultural Institutions paper includes many of the common sense considerations applicable to any historic property. As stated in the paper, “No institution is immune from fire. . . . Damage from fire . . . is usually permanent and irreparable. Historical buildings or contents, once reduced to ash, can never be restored.” Of particular interest is the Self-Inspection Checklist.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the General Services Administration produced a manual in 1989 for Fire Safety Retrofitting in Historic Buildings. GSA has extracted the most important information in the manual to a bullet point list on their website. There is also the 2001 Technical Preservation Guidelines Fire Safety Retrofitting which contains similar guidelines and illustrations for less-invasive fire suppression and detection technology.

For more information on fire safety and research, visit the National Fire Prevention Association website at www.nfpa.org.

There are literally hundreds of specialized terms for the parts of a building, and it can be hard to find precisely the right word you need to describe one part of your building. Here are a few suggestions, from the basic to the specialized, to help you start identifying the parts of your house with confidence and precision.

For a basic overview of the “bones” of the house, the recommended book is Francis Ching’s Building Construction Illustrated. Older editions are recommended for legibility.

For a simplified visual guide to identifying house styles, basic floor plans, and exterior parts of a house, the go-to book is Virginia Savage McAlester and Lee McAlester’s A Field Guide to American Houses. The pictorial glossary is in the first section of the book, before the discussions of identifying architectural styles.

For more specialized terms, Cyril M. Harris’ Historic Architecture Sourcebook contains numerous illustrations and alphabetical listings of uncommon architectural terms. The downside of this book is that you must either have an idea of the word you are searching for, or plenty of time to flip through the book.

A number of older, out of copyright architectural glossaries can now be searched and read on Google eBooks. A free version of John Henry Parker’s classic A Concise Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture (1869) is available. An American-specific glossary The American Glossary of Architectural Terms (1887) by George O. Garnsey is also available. The text of both can be searched for broad terms to find more specific related words.

If you would just like a quick dose of new architectural vocabulary in your life, visit National Trust for Historic Preservation Blog and search their “Preservation Glossary” entries, which offer illustrations and short definitions. A similar slideshow of unusual terms is available at This Old House.

Do you have any other favorite places to find architectural terminology? Let us know!