Restoration at Bogworts
The original 1700s farmhouse and atached 1901 farmhouse have been the main focus in 2025 and 2026. Here is a story in pictures for one of our major accomplishments, the restoration of he main hearth and beehive oven in the colonial "hall" or main room.
Center Chimney Restoration
The colonial hearth and beehive oven had long been sealed up behind a brick wall when we purchased the farm in 1971. In the late 1980s, there was a bad chimney fire, which burned for two days until the fire department finally smashed through that brick wall and broke into the beehive oven to put it out. After the fire, my parents did hire a mason to repair the upper part of the burned chimney, but the main hearth and oven were still compromised. Damp, smelly air blew into the house around the edges of the Tyvek taped onto the smashed brick wall in the living room – the smells of long dead birds, bats, rats, and mice. Here is the story of restoration, in pictures. Click the image below for full view.
After a chimney fire raged for two days during windy, sub-zero temperatures of a February in the late 1980s, fire-fighters broke through the walled up hearth and then smashed a hole in the beehive oven to finally quench the inferno. While the upper parts of the chimney were repaired, cosmetically, the oven and main hearth were left broken, covered with a sheet of Tyvek and a cotton bed coverlet. In January 2026, we peeled back these layers and looked inside.
What we saw was daunting, so we covered it back up. While waiting for the mason to start work, we took the step of pulling down the lath and plaster ceiling, which probably dated from the around 1800. The lath was hand-riven oak. The beams had not been seen, except by the mice, since then.
We are still waiting for the mantel wood to acclimatize before applying tung oil, but here is the room post construction.
After a chimney fire raged for two days during windy, sub-zero temperatures of a February in the late 1980s, fire-fighters broke through the walled up hearth and then smashed a hole in the beehive oven to finally quench the inferno. While the upper parts of the chimney were repaired, cosmetically, the oven and main hearth were left broken, covered with a sheet of Tyvek and a cotton bed coverlet. In January 2026, we peeled back these layers and looked inside.