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Fireplaces & Chimneys

My hometown of Aiken, South Carolina is a beautiful place to visit, a great place to live and, apparently, a great place to retire, as well. There is so much history to absorb in Aiken, yet I was totally oblivious to it all when I lived there as a kid. Although, there is one historic building in particular that I've been in awe of even when I was a teen.

It wasn't until I was thirty-something before I realized what a gem-of-a-town Aiken truly is. There are so many activities going on throughout the year, not to mention that residents of Aiken know a thing, or two, about true Southern hospitality. People actually drive the posted speed limits in Aiken, too! That's a welcome contrast to today's hectic lifestyles most of us lead these days.

 The Willcox, also known as the Willcox Inn to many Aiken natives was based upon Second Empire and Colonial Revival styles of architecture. It was first opened to guests in 1900, guided by Cheshire, England native, Frederick Sugden Willcox along with his Swedish wife, Elise. It's a beautiful spectacle to behold. There have been many renovations over the years to get it to this point and it is currently owned and operated by The Garrett Hotel Group.

I have so much I've been wanting to discuss about The Willcox that I've decided that it would be best to break it up into a few different blog posts to best serve each sub-topic. In this post, I will be jotting down my thoughts regarding Room 304, the highly regarded and historic Roosevelt Suite. I also want to share some photos I took on a private tour given by a friend (couldn't believe my luck!)

I've literally seen hundreds of fireplace surrounds in my neverending tour of new homes. The stacked stone design of the fireplace seen in the photo below ranks very high on my list of one of the most unusual and beautiful designs I've ever seen.

Its' spectacular design must have been extremely difficult to produce. The stone mason that put all of these slivers of natural stone together on a vertical surface, in what I like to call a "stone sunburst" design, deserves high praise.

I posted an article and gallery recently of a newly constructed Victorian home featuring the chimneys and chimney pots.  I promised more chimney pot photos and information so here goes.

I've been in contact with Ola over at The Chimney Pot Shoppe and she was kind enough to get permission from all of the homeowners featuring these unusual chimney pots that follow.

You may be surprised to learn how many styles, shapes and sizes that chimney pots come in these days. They are a great way to add character to your home while controlling draft simultaneously.

If you're looking for a gallery of images showing a Victorian style chimney and chimney pots, I think this post might fit the bill. I've also included quite a few pictures of chimney pots of various styles that are very interesting.

The chimney and chimney pot photos that you'll see in the gallery were taken in a couple of separate visits I made recently at the construction site of the immense Victorian home that I am featuring over the next few weeks-to-months. I was not present for the construction of them (darn it!) but I do have the results to share...and they are quite spectacular.

The lower portion of the gallery are photos were loaned from an exterior design contest that ChimneyPots conducted in 2008.

UPDATE 07/29/2008: I've created an entirely different post featuring many types of installed chimney pots and more information on them, including links to how to install them, the history of chimney pots and more.

This is part 2 of our experience attending the Marietta Pilgrimage Christmas Home Tour from 2007.

Here is the first part of our visit to the Marietta Pilgrimage: A Christmas Home Tour if you want to begin there first and then come back here afterwards.

The high quality building materials for the mantels, fireplaces and chimneys in this English cottage-style home are all smart choices due to their durability, natural beauty and functionality. The same goes for the reclaimed antique terra cotta roofing tiles, copper gutter system, hand-hewn solid white oak exposed beams in the breakfast room and the stone wall that surrounds the intricate courtyard.

Welcome to part 2 of my "Best Of" photo series of this custom built English cottage-style home.

I had the opportunity to see travertine tile inlay being used in a custom-crafted fireplace recently that had been installed in a fantastic new Charleston Row House-style home under construction in the heart of downtown Aiken, South Carolina. Various shades of tan to brown with specks of slate blue were interlaced within some of the tiles giving interior designer, Tara, the inspiration to give a coat of a complimentary blue paint in the master suite. This particular travertine tile was mined in Turkey and lends a touch of class to an already beautiful Charleston Row House-style home design plan.

Aiken homebuilder (and old schoolmate) H.L. "Buddy" Stevens, along with Tara, have undertaken quite a homebuilding project in this historic section of Aiken on Park Avenue. He has taken a rather obscure piece of real estate and made it a focal point for what's in store for that section of downtown Aiken. I lived in Aiken for several years and continue to visit family in Aiken on a regular basis and I can't (for the life of me) remember what used to sit on the property that Buddy has built this beautiful new home on. Quite a transformation!